Abstract

Technical innovations show peculiar characteristics that necessitate economic measures concerning the economic order and the allocation of resources. A detailed analysis of the private innovation process serves as a basis for discussing state interferences. It will occur by means of a Neo-Schumpeterian (or evolutionary) interpretation emphasizing the disequilibrium af innovation activity. Private and public policy measures concerning the promotion of technical innovations include R&D cooperation of firms (ex ante-coordination), patent protection as an integral part of governmental institutions (ex post-coordination), subsidizing entrepreneurial research and development and provision of merit goods as measures regarding the allocation of resources. Their object is not to attain the optimal allocation of resources (in a welfare economic meaning) but to accelerate the economic and technical development through a combination of suitable private and public economic policy instruments.