With its focus on economic growth in New England, the Adventure conveys two core themes:

• First, living standards have improved dramatically in New England over the past 200 years. Compared with earlier generations, we live longer, have more leisure time, live in more comfortable houses, and consume both a greater quantity and a wider variety of goods and services.
  
  
• Second, the improvement in living standards is the direct result of economic growth and increases in labor productivity. Our per capita consumption of goods and services has increased because our per capita production (output) of goods and services has increased. When we produce more, we can consume more. The increased productivity is the result of

  1. technological innovation;

  2. investment in plants, equipment, education, and training; and

  3. the expansion of trading opportunities.

Individual initiative and supportive civic institutions have played an important role in bringing these changes about.

Why New England?

New England’s economic history makes it especially well suited to illustrate how economic growth occurs. New England was the first region of the country to industrialize, and important innovations in manufacturing production technology occurred here. Competitive pressures resulting from shifts in comparative advantage led to episodes of economic transformation and reinvention, eventually resulting in the high-tech, knowledge-based economy of contemporary New England.