Economics of Innovation

The goal of this course is to give broad insight into the economic effects of invention and innovation. Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman once noted that while productivity isn't everything, it is in the long run, almost everything. A country's ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker. Doing so increasingly demands leveraging the power of invention and innovation to boost workforce productivity across industries like energy, medicine, and transportation. Innovations in each of these sectors have produced drills that can bore deeper, drugs that have a longer shelf life, and airplanes that can fly further than in decades prior. These innovations, and others like them, have over time fundamentally altered the economic status quo. This course explores the consequences—both good and bad—that invention and innovation has on consumers, firms, and governments.