In this paper we argue that government procurement policy played a role in stimulating the wave of innovation that hit the US economy in the 1980's, as well as the simultaneous increase in inequality and in education attainment. Since the early 1980's U.S. policy makers began targeting...

How does the interplay between natural selection, household education choices, and R&D activities shape our macroeconomic trajectory? To explore this question, we develop an innovation-driven growth model that connects household heterogeneity in education ability with endogenous fertility and...

The aim of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, we present a methodology to measure the novel concept of elite quality (EQ), that is, country’s elites’ propensity– on aggregate – to create value, rather than rent seek. A four-level architecture allows for both an overall quantification of a...

This paper examines how the interaction between natural selection, household education choices and R&D activities influences macroeconomic growth. We develop an innovation-driven growth model that integrates household heterogeneity in educational ability with endogenous fertility and the...

Starting in the early 1980s, the U.S. patent regime experienced major changes that allowed the patenting of numerous scientific findings lacking in current commercial applications. We assess the rationality of these changes in the legal and institutional environment for science and technology...

This study explores the effects of minimum wage on automation and innovation in a Schumpeterian growth model. We find that raising the minimum wage decreases the employment of low-skill workers and has ambiguous effects on innovation and automation. Specifically, if the elasticity of...

How does patent policy affect long-run economic growth through the population growth rate? To analyze this question, we develop an R&D-based growth model with endogenous fertility. In recent vintages of R&D-based growth models in which scale effects are absent, the long-run growth rate depends...

This study develops an R&D-based growth model that features both vertical and horizontal innovation to shed some light on the current debate on whether patent protection stimulates or stifles innovation. Specifically, we analyze the growth and welfare effects of patent protection in the form of...

To foster innovation and growth should basic research be publicly or privately funded? This paper studies the impact of the gradual shift in the U.S. patent system towards the patentability and commercialization of the basic R&D undertaken by universities. We see this movement as making...

The current British Government's "Big Society" plan is based on the idea that granting more freedom to local communities and volunteers will compensate for a withdrawal of public agencies and spending. This idea is grounded on a widely held belief about the relationship between government and...