Creativity vital to Irish recovery, says economist

Ireland’s path out of economic turmoil will be reliant on the harnessing of entrepreneurship and innovative ideas, according to one of the world’s leading economists.

Imagination is one of the key values to a good economy, while the recognition of human creativity, the rise of vitalism, and the recognition that “an upstart theory should be allowed to compete with any established theory” are key ingredients to growth, according to Nobel prize-winning economist Edmund Phelps.

“The future is open for us to act on it, not for us to control,” said Prof Phelps during an address entitled Values, Innovation and the Good Economy at NUI Galway, yesterday.