In exploring the microfoundations of economic growth, the contributors to this volume focus on three subjects that were of profound interest to the great Austrian and Harvard economist, Joseph A. Schumpeter: innovation, technological change, and economic growth. Here economic growth is approached from the vantage point of individual firms and industries. Most analysis of innovation takes place at the firm or industry level, while discussion of economic growth takes place at an economy-wide level.

The volume's unique feature is in combining a look at institutions and the innovative behavior of firms with an intuitively dynamic, macro-economic analysis, all from a Schumpeterian perspective. The contributors argue that the study of microinstitutions, such as firms and the evolving nature of markets, is necessary for understanding macro-oriented phenomena such as economic growth. It is in this sense, then, that the book is concerned with microfoundations.