This is Planet Money from NPR.

In the mid-90s, there was this big new economic theory that was all the rage.

It was an idea for how countries can produce unlimited economic growth, which is kind

of the whole point of economics.

You know, growth means less poverty, more prosperity.

For decades, economists had said they're basically just two ways to make an economy grow,

invest in capital or in labor, intangible mundane things like factories and workers, which

means growth is ultimately limited because there are just so many people you can hire or

factories you can build.

But then some economists, most notably Paul Romer, said, actually, there's a third way

to grow.

Innovation.

And before this, people thought of innovation as a sort of mysterious force that kind of

comes and goes at its own discretion.

Paul Romer said, actually, you can make innovation happen.

Innovation is just like a factory you can build.

All you have to do is like invest in science education, promote market competition, and

most importantly, pass strong patent laws so that ideas can be protected and monetized.

Do these things pass those laws and innovation will follow.

And people loved this idea.

Paul Romer eventually won the Nobel Prize in Economics for it, and he taught it to an

entire generation of economic students.

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