Innovation: Meager Private Gains, Enormous Social Gains

Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 2011, vol. 1, issue 4, 7

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.

Keywords: innovation; externalities; optimal innovation activity; low payoffs of inventive activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.2202/2157-5665.1056

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