Growth is sustained by the development of new varieties of intermediate goods.
Innovation is risky and the probability of success depends on entrepreneurs' actions, which can only be imperfectly observed by outsiders through the use of a costly monitoring technology. Financial intermediaries emerge to avoid the duplication of monitoring activities and negotiate incentive contracts with innovators. Monitoring intensity is determined endogenously as a function of factor prices and determines the risk premium required by risk-averse researchers. Natural forward and backward links arise between finance and innovation. By allowing for better risk sharing, closer monitoring yields a higher level of innovative activity in equilibrium and faster growth.