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Innovation: Meager Private Gains, Enormous Social Gains
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William Baumol
Published/Copyright:
October 3, 2011
Abstract
There is strong evidence that invention is an activity that is very risky for the inventor and that those who participate in the invention process, taken as a group, obtain a minuscule share of the benefits. Nevertheless, the evidence also indicates that the social benefits of invention in recent centuries have been enormous. Yet, the relatively few examples of enormous payoffs to the inventors and their investors may serve, like the multimillion dollar prizes offered by some lotteries, to stimulate a level of inventive activity that may even be close to the social optimum.
Published Online: 2011-10-03
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Advancing Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Editors' Corner
- Innovation: Meager Private Gains, Enormous Social Gains
- Competitive Research Article
- Bounded Opportunity: A Knowledge-Based Approach to Opportunity Recognition and Development
- Entrepreneurship Capital and Technical Efficiency: The Role of New Business/Firms as a Conduit of Knowledge Spillovers
- Nowhere to Run and Nowhere to Hide: The Relationship between Entrepreneurial Success and Feelings of Entrapment
- Commentary
- The Technology Enabled Entrepreneur: Today's Hope for a Better Tomorrow
Keywords for this article
innovation;
externalities;
optimal innovation activity;
low payoffs of inventive activity
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Advancing Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Editors' Corner
- Innovation: Meager Private Gains, Enormous Social Gains
- Competitive Research Article
- Bounded Opportunity: A Knowledge-Based Approach to Opportunity Recognition and Development
- Entrepreneurship Capital and Technical Efficiency: The Role of New Business/Firms as a Conduit of Knowledge Spillovers
- Nowhere to Run and Nowhere to Hide: The Relationship between Entrepreneurial Success and Feelings of Entrapment
- Commentary
- The Technology Enabled Entrepreneur: Today's Hope for a Better Tomorrow
