ECON 377
Inspiration/Perspiration: The Economics of Innovation Spring 2024
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

From the iron plow, to the steam engine, to modern biotechnology, innovation drives economic growth and raises living standards. Whether we are talking about great inventions or small tweaks, the tools of economics can help us understand how new ideas, technologies, and products emerge, spread, and become obsolete. In this course, we will examine the creation of new knowledge, the translation of ideas and scientific advances into practical applications, and the adoption of new technologies by producers and consumers. We will study the incentives that potential innovators face, how these are affected by patents and other forms of intellectual property rights, how entrepreneurs finance and market their innovations and how different market structures can influence the resulting trajectory of innovation and adoption. We will also discuss how government policies can foster the financing and development of innovation. Throughout the course, we will explore historical and contemporary case studies of the creation, exploitation, and consequences of innovation.