The Weightless Economy in Economic Development

While the notion that knowledge plays no small part in economic growth may be perceived to be both old and new, this chapter encounters a seemingly different claim that asserts how knowledge is important not only in terms of science, R&D, and education, but because the national income has experienced significant increases through knowledge products which entail the delivery of goods and services through the internet, and the development of electronic databases, new media, and computer software. These products are called so not because of how their production is knowledge-intensive but because their physical properties are similar to those of knowledge. This chapter demonstrates how knowledge products are not without a certain reliance in the demand for their continuous growth, and also for how they improve economic development since they lessen the ‘distance’ between consumers and knowledge-based production.