The headline of the article is On the Innovation of Nations.

The author of the article is Klaus Schwab.

 The article is taken from the newspaper The NY Times its issue of Dec. 15,
2013.

The article is devoted to researching new ways of measuring national

competitiveness.
The author starts by telling the reader that many economists have sought to find
out what makes some countries more successful than others.
So, it was suggested to classify countries in order to understand the forces that
drive development and just to improve the economy.
As known, there was a distinction between” developing “and” industrialized "
economies. But today we use a different term - "emerging markets". This current
classification of national economic indicators, based on income and growth,
highlights only the outcomes of a process. In a quickly changing interconnected
world more countries are moving up the ladder, even as distributions of wealth and
income are becoming increasingly concentrated within countries — this kind of
output based categorization is becoming archaic.

As an alternative to traditional growth measures, some people are calling for "gross
national happiness" measures and other broader measures of people's well-being.
The author emphasizes that this classification should focus on how innovative the
country is. Then the author continues saying that the factors that contribute to an
ecosystem of innovation are many, and interconnected: A strong scientific and
technological base, investment from public and private sectors, links between
businesses and research centers etc.

If developing countries pay more attention to their potential for innovation, their
economic success will increasingly be determined by whether and how countries
can use their innovative potential. This will lead to a shift from one based on a
static concept of income to another based on innovation and the ability to maintain
an improved standard of living over time.

According to earlier experiments in the field of Economics, it is known that it will

take centuries to understand that the impact of innovation is just beginning to
become visible.

While rapid technological changes are destroying the traditional concept of” work
for life", new opportunities are also being created: massive open online courses,
the growing complexity of technologies that allow interaction over vast distances,
and the growth of self-managed learning communities have made learning
accessible to all.

The author stresses that it also must be recognized that the astonishing
technological leaps of recent decades have been accompanied by increased
inequality. An innovative society may be a less inclusive and more fragmented
one. Also innovation cannot divorce itself from the society from which it springs.

At the end of the article, the author concludes that innovation has a high price in
the changes it brings to the labor markets. When evaluating countries for their
innovative potential, it takes into account how they cope with the devastating
effects of technological change.

As for my opinion on this issue, I fully support the author in that he decided to find
new ways of measuring national competitiveness. Because with the advent of
innovation, modern society is currently in an unstable position. Even if a country
has a high rate of global dynamism, we should not forget that the population may
live in poverty. Therefore, it is important to be able to correctly assess the
economic situation in a particular country.