Innovation in Developing Countries

“Modernity, which centrally entails a weakening of family and clan ties, is a precondition of economic progress, and education an important factor in promoting a modern outlook, quite apart from education’s role in developing technical skills,” says Judge Richard Posner in his weekly blog with Nobel Laureate Gary Becker. “Many developing countries are authoritarian, and their rulers may worry that education will loosen their grip on the population. On the contrary, it is more likely to strengthen it, by weakening family and clan loyalties that compete with loyalty to the regime.”