PÅ DEN TILLVÄXTPOLITISKA AGENDAN 51 Taxation, Institutions and the Agents of Economic Growth

Research has shown that the introduction and protection of private property rights has been crucial for the success of a country in creating economic growth and general prosperity. However, the mechanisms through which private property rights lead to growth have not been fully elucidated. We present a theory – the theory of the compe-tence bloc – that links growth to property rights. According to this theory growth is a result of the perpetual creation and use of new productive knowledge, i.e. innova-tions. This takes place within the framework of the competence bloc, which defines the smallest number of economic actors with different but complementary competen-cies that are required in order to generate, identify, select, expand and commercialise new knowledge (innovations). The competence bloc includes, for example, entrepre-neurs, industrialists and venture capitalists. The competence is human-embodied and growth is therefore dependent on the acquisition and utilisation of productive know-ledge by individuals. The willingness of individuals to do this is determined by in-centives forged by the rules of the game in society – its institutions. The paper con-tains an analysis of the ways in which the tax system can be expected to influence th