Innovation

High-Priced Acquisitions of Tech Startups Do Not Always Stimulate More Innovation

What seems to be a big reward to innovation ultimately reduces the incentive to innovate, argues a new Stigler Center working paper by Krishna...

Are “Patent Trolls” Stick-Up Artists or Just Benign Middlemen?

A new study explores the dual effect that non-practicing entities, commonly known as patent trolls, have on innovation and the market of ideas. The discussion...

Inside Tech’s “Kill Zone”: How to Deal With the Threat to Edge Innovation Posed by Multi-Sided Platforms

Dominant tech platforms can exploit the vast amounts of user data available only to them to squash startups and independent providers. Hal...

Google and Facebook’s “Kill Zone”: “We've Taken the Focus Off of Rewarding Genius and Innovation to Rewarding Capital and Scale”

A Stigler Center panel explores the implications of tech giants’ dominance on innovation and startups. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin joined a growing...

The Motives of “Joiners” Explain Higher Rates of Innovation in Startup Firms

It’s not just the founders of startups who boast an entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to take risks. Those who join new ventures show...

Are Innovators Born or Made?

The question of whether people are born with innovative talent or can develop it has knock-on effects to issues ranging from productivity growth in...

America's "Lost Einsteins" Are Dealing a Blow to Innovation

A new paper finds that America is full of "lost Einsteins" among women, minorities, and low-income groups: high performers who never become inventors because...

LATEST NEWS

Creation over Time in Copyright and Patent

On May 18, the United States Supreme Court decided two intellectual property cases with two seemingly different results. A closer look, however, reveals a complimentary concern with the monopolistic power of first movers and how the legal system should enable innovation from second movers over time, writes Randy Picker.

ESG Standards’ Good, Bad and Ugly

The Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State hosted a virtual event discussing the standards, metrics and disclosures of investments focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. The following is a transcript of the event.

Reregulate.

Lee Hepner and William J. McGee respond to Clifford Winston’s ProMarket piece asserting that further deregulation of the airline industry would resolve problems in the industry. Instead, the authors claim a return to regulation would produce better results for travelers.

A World With Far Fewer Mergers

Brooke Fox and Walter Frick analyze research and ideas presented at the Stigler Center Antitrust and Competition Conference that question the value of mergers.

The Banking Risks of Central Bank Digital Currencies

The implementation of central bank digital currencies as the primary medium of exchange would exacerbate the flaws of our current fiat system which encourage banks to overextend credit and create liabilities that they cannot redeem. This will worsen the already recurring cycles of financial crises, writes Vibhu Vikramaditya.