Culture, Human Development and Economic Growth

The joint UNRISD-UNESCO series of Occasional Papers on Culture and Development is a first step in facilitating and catalyzing an international debate on culture and development based on high-quality research. The present paper by Keith Griffin is the third in the series. In it, the author shows not only the intrinsic value of human development and cultural diversity, but also their instrumental value in promoting growth. In discussing the ties that bind human development and economic growth, he emphasized the importance of investing in human capacities and the positive repercussions of such investments.The author argues that creativity, new knowledge, new technology, new institutional arrangements, is the fountainhead of economic growth, and that pluralism, multiculturalism, contributes to creativity in all fields of endeavour.