Overview

What determines why some countries succeed and others fall behind? Economists have long debated the sources of economic growth, resulting in conflicting and often inaccurate claims about the role of the state, knowledge, patented ideas, monopolies, grand innovation prizes, and the nature of disruptive technologies.B. Zorina Khan's Inventing Ideas overturns conventional thinking and meticulously demonstrates how and why the mechanism design of institutions propels advances in the knowledge economy and ultimately shapes the fate of nations. Drawing on the experiences of over 100,000 inventors and innovations from Britain, France, and the United States during the first and second industrial revolutions (1750-1930), Khan's comprehensive empirical analysis provides a definitive micro-foundation for endogenous macroeconomic growth models.This groundbreaking study uses comparative analysis across time and place to show how different institutions affect technological innovation and growth. Khan demonstrates how top-down innovation systems, in which elites, state administrators, or panels make key economic decisions about prizes, rewards and the allocation of resources, prove to be ineffective and unproductive. By contrast, open-access markets in patented ideas increase the scale and scope of creativity, foster diversity and inclusiveness, generate greater knowledge spillovers, and enhance social welfare in the wider population. When institutions are associated with rewards that are misaligned with economic value and productivity, the negative consequences can accumulate and reduce comparative advantage at the level of individuals and nations alike. So who will arise as the global leader of the twenty-first century? The answer depends on the extent to which we learn and implement the lessons from the history of innovation and enterprise.

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9780190936082

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Reviews

"""No nation has achieved economic prosperity without robust technological progress. But what propels innovation? This erudite book makes a powerful case that state administered solutions and elite designs do not work, and the market system underpinned by open access for a broad cross-section of society is the key to technological flourishing. Not everybody will agree with this assessment, but there is more than enough here to take Zorina Khan's rich arguments and considerable historical evidence seriously.""-Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ""Zorina Khan reviews the history of intellectual property and innovation, and highlights that much of what we think we know about these areas is confused, and in many cases, outright wrong. Full of fascinating facts and anecdotes, this book is sure to convey valuable insights to everyone who opens the volume.""-Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor, Harvard Business School ""This deeply researched book underscores the importance of bringing serious study of history to bear on current policy issues.""-Naomi Lamoreaux, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics and History, Yale ""Inventing Ideas by Zorina Khan is a significant intellectual contribution to our understanding of both the institutions and incentives for innovation and technological progress. Khan artfully weaves a narrative, provides conceptual clarity, and backs up her propositions with empirical insights to help us understand why certain countries successfully built and executed innovation machines that enabled progress and others did not. A must-read for scholars of innovation and institutional development.""-Karim R. Lakhani, Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School"

Inventing Ideas by Zorina Khan is a significant intellectual contribution to our understanding of both the institutions and incentives for innovation and technological progress. Khan artfully weaves a narrative, provides conceptual clarity, and backs up her propositions with empirical insights to help us understand why certain countries successfully built and executed innovation machines that enabled progress and others did not. A must-read for scholars of innovation and institutional development. -Karim R. Lakhani, Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School This deeply researched book underscores the importance of bringing serious study of history to bear on current policy issues. -Naomi Lamoreaux, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics and History, Yale Zorina Khan reviews the history of intellectual property and innovation, and highlights that much of what we think we know about these areas is confused, and in many cases, outright wrong. Full of fascinating facts and anecdotes, this book is sure to convey valuable insights to everyone who opens the volume. -Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor, Harvard Business School No nation has achieved economic prosperity without robust technological progress. But what propels innovation? This erudite book makes a powerful case that state administered solutions and elite designs do not work, and the market system underpinned by open access for a broad cross-section of society is the key to technological flourishing. Not everybody will agree with this assessment, but there is more than enough here to take Zorina Khan's rich arguments and considerable historical evidence seriously. -Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Author Information

B. Zorina Khan is Professor of Economics at Bowdoin College, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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