And yet, Insead dean Ilian Mihov says that growth has “no limit” — a statement that he readily acknowledges can be “controversial”. His argument against the limitations of economic growth is that innovation, which he believes can circumvent the finite nature of physical resources, is limitless.
When it comes to economic growth, the conventional wisdom is that a finite world of finite resources cannot support indefinite growth. A 1972 study titled The Limits To Growth was commissioned by the Club of Rome to investigate the possibility of exponential economic and population growth built on a finite supply of resources.
The outcome of the report, one that many believe was true at the time and holds even truer today, was that the Earth’s interlocking resources — the global system of nature in which we all live — is likely unable to support present rates of economic and population growth much beyond the year 2100, if that long, even with advanced technology.
