| Summary: | Although relating economic growth to knowledge is hardly a new idea, the coining of the phrase “the knowledge economy” testifies to a novel theoretical approach and a perception of the importance of knowledge in the contemporary world. Seen as a driver of competitiveness first in Europe, then in emerging economies like China or Brazil, the knowledge economy is becoming increasingly globalized in the mid-2010s. Yet the United States has maintained a leadership which, this paper argues, is rooted in the development of a specific intellectual and institutional history. In support of this view the first part analyses the seminal contribution of leading American economists to the emergence of the knowledge economy concept, as well as to the development of knowledge economics. The second part studies a number of institutions put in place in the course of United States history which appear to have greatly favored the emergence of a knowledge economy, and concludes that this is highly localized and increasingly de-nationalized.
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