The appearance of this article due to the necessity of studying the experience of developed countries in the world of economics, producing, distributing and using knowledge. There is a direct interest in government and nonprofit organizations, and business-structures in the synthesis and analysis of contemporary economic and other trends to determine their behavior in the economic and social spheres. The study of international experience has shown that the development of an economy based on knowledge, due to several factors: human, determining socio-economic relations, technology-intensive developing under the influence of science, and information, delivering new knowledge. At the same time on a new stage of development of the economy knowledge have become an economic resource. Public policy for an economy based on knowledge includes the activity to create an intellectual environment, the conditions of innovative economic development, taking into account the needs and interests of all segments of society.