What are the major new growth markets of the future? Why do groundbreaking innovations - like the computer, the automobile or the steam engine in the past - increasingly fail to materialize? What are the current growth barriers that hinder the further development of economy and society? The reader will find answers to these questions in this book. The Theory of Long Waves serves as a scientific foundation. In short, it states that economic and social development is significantly determined by periodic cycles that last between 40 and 60 years. In honor of their discoverer Nikolai Kondratieff, these long waves are called Kondratieff cycles. Since the late 18th century, economists have empirically proven five Kondratieff cycles. The long waves have a particularly strategic role: those, who identify the respective current Kondratieff cycle early on are able to focus on the future, to take the lead in economic and social development and benefit the most from its momentum - just like the leading command of information technology during the last, the fifth Kondratieff cycle made full employment and increasing wealth possible for these countries. The sixth Kondratieff cycle has begun with the turn of this century. As the analyses in this book show, health care will be the driving force of this new Kondratieff cycle. However, health is not just seen in a physical, but also in a holistic sense, encompassing the physical, psychological, mental, psycho-mental, social, ecological and spiritual aspects. Why are health expenditures that were previously considered a mere cost factor going to assume the role of a growth locomotive in the future? We need to recall the findings of modern growth theory here: the most important source for economic growth in developed countries is productivity advancements. The analyses in this book show that a new understanding of health is indispensable to improve productivity on all levels of the economy and society. Thanks to this new understanding, health will become a strategic weapon for the next decades. This book is tailored to a general audience, includes 76 graphics and 13 tables and is aimed at stakeholders in economy and society, experts and managers and all those, who are interested in the future. Aside from a profound analysis, the book also describes measures to develop the sixth Kondratieff.
About the Author: Born in 1939, is one of the most well known German experts of the Theory of Long Waves and one of the most renowned trailblazers of the information society. From 1965 until 2002, he worked in key positions in research and development in the German industry and the public sectors. He also served as an advisor to the German Federal Ministry of Re¬search and Technology and multiple German state govern¬ments, inter¬national orga¬nizations and private companies. In 2004, Nefiodow was a member of the "Our Future Eco¬nomy" task force by the Club of Rome. In November 2014 he was awarded the Bronze Medal by the Inter¬national N.D. Kondratieff Foundation and the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Since 1990, Nefiodow has written more than 100 publications about the Theory of Long Waves. The first English edition of his latest book "The Sixth Kondratieff. The New Long Wave of the Global Economy" appeared 2014 together with Simone Nefiodow (Second edition in April 2017). Nefiodow illustrates how a holistic concept of health will become the carrier of a new long phase of prospe¬rity in the 21st century. Those countries, regions, companies and people that focus on the sixth Kondratieff early on, will be among the winners in the 21st century.