52 Quotes by Paul Romer

When somebody discovers something like the quadratic formula or the Pythagorean theorem, the convention in science is that he can't control that idea. He has to give it away. He publishes it. What's rewarded in science is dissemination of ideas.

But if we set our minds to improving technology, we can improve it in a direction that seems important to us and even at a faster rate.

The economy is this huge innovation discovery machine. What the government can do usefully is to focus some of that effort where things turn out better for everyone.

In the 1950s, Hong Kong was a place where millions of people could go, from the mainland, to start in jobs like sewing shirts, making toys. But, to get on a process of increasing income, increasing skills led to very rapid growth there.

Yeah, you know, there's a difference between the textbook world that economists like to imagine, and the real world where real people have real feelings.

An economy can survive with 10% of the population insolation. It can't survive when 50% of the population is in isolation.

If we collectively set our minds to improving technology of a particular type we can do that, and it takes some collective action, some support for research, or some provision of patent protection, or a mixture of the two, and some focussed energy.

Well, one of the things I should tell you is that if you look at the very long sweep of history what you see is that the rate of growth has been speeding up, the rate of progress, and that's because there's more and more people who are all engaged in this process of discovery.

But when I think about, say, a pharmaceutical that might help keep my mind sharp in 20 years or 30 years, I don't care if it's discovered in the United States or someplace else in the world.