The capitalization of knowledge

Conclusion

The United States economic crisis of the past decade has precipitated a debate over future economic strategy. The alternative positions are whether it is better to try to save old industries or develop new ones. Nevertheless, worker control of firms through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP's) and state government investment in new high-tech companies have one thing in common. They both represent a turn toward the microeconomic level of firms in influencing economic policy rather than the traditional macroeconomic level of monetary or fiscal policy.

However the Reagan administration continued the federal tradition established during the Roosevelt era of influencing the economy on the macroeconomic level. This squelched the move toward a microeconomic industrial policy that was emerging toward the end of the Carter administration. Responsibility for industrial policy, never explicitly assumed by the federal government, is currently being assumed by state governments. Support for science, a responsibility the federal government assumed during the post-war era, is currently being undertaken by the states to address economic development needs.

During the Reagan era, as the federal government continued to focus on macroeconomic policies, state governments created microeconomic policies designed to renew regional industrial infrastructures. The various state government initiatives oriented toward developing new technology for civilian purposes assumed responsibility for industrial and science policy. It is noteworthy that these programs for shaping the relations among science, technology, and economic development have been supported by governors and legislators across the political spectrum. Perhaps ironically, a national consensus on industrial and science policy has been achieved, but implementation has been largely limited to the regional level. Given the broad base of support for state science/ industry initiatives it is reasonable to predict that it will become national policy in some form as a new generation takes political leadership on the federal level in the post-Reagan era. Perhaps in the future we shall see a reprise of what happened during the depression when the Roosevelt administration inaugurated, on a larger scale, programs that Wisconsin and New York had pioneered during the Progressive era.