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While the importance of innovation to economic development is widely understood, the conditions conducive to it remain the focus of much attention. This title offers contributions to fundamental questions relating to the economics of innovation and technological change.

"Innovation and entrepreneurship are ubiquitous today, both as fields of study and as starting points for conversations among experts in government and economic development. But while these areas on continue to attract public and private investments, many measurements of their resulting economic growth-including productivity growth and business dynamism-have remained modest. Why this difference? Because not all business sectors are the same, and the transformative gains of some industries have been offset by stagnation or contraction in others. Accordingly, a nuanced understanding of the economy requires a nuanced understanding of where innovation and entrepreneurship occur and where they matter. Answering these questions allows for strategic public investment and the infrastructure for economic growth.The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth, the latest entry in the NBER conference series, seeks to codify these answers. The editors leverage industry studies to identify specific examples of productivity improvements enabled by innovation and entrepreneurship, including those from new production technologies, increased competition, new organizational forms, and other means. Taken together, the volume illuminates whether the contribution of innovation and entrepreneurship to economic growth is likely to be concentrated, be it selected sectors or more broadly"--

When firms and people are located near each other in cities and in industrial clusters, they benefit in various ways, including by reducing the costs of exchanging goods and ideas. This title includes essays that examine the reasons why economic activity continues to cluster together despite the falling costs of moving goods and information.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Sweden carried out one of the most ambitious experiments by a capitalist market economy in developing a large and active welfare state. Bringing together leading economists, this book examines Sweden's policies in response to the mid-1990s crisis and the implications for the subsequent recovery.

Once heralded as a model welfare state, Sweden is now in transition since its economic plunge in the early 1990s. This volume examines Sweden's economic problems from a US perspective, exploring such diverse topics as income equalization, welfare and tax policy, wage determination and unemployment.

Provides an assessment of how effectively labor market institutions are responding to the decline of private sector unions. This book also provides case studies of labor market institutions and various directions for existing institutions. It presents the story of workers and institutions searching for ways to represent labor.

Analyzes the changing economic and demographic environment in which social insurance programs benefiting elderly households will operate. This book also explores how these ongoing trends can affect future beneficiaries, under the Social Security program and potential reform options.

The diversity of labor market intermediaries encompasses criminal records providers, public employment offices, labor unions, and centralized medical residency matches. This work analyzes how these third-party actors intercede where workers and firms meet, thereby aiding, impeding, and, in some cases, exploiting the matching process.

Looks at the effects of the euro on reform of goods and labor markets; its influence on business cycles and trade among members; and, whether the single currency has induced convergence or divergence in the economic performance of member countries. This title focuses on both the first ten years of the euro and the workings of a monetary union.

Focuses on the changing financial circumstances of the elderly and the relationship of these circumstances to health and health care. This title addresses such topics as: out-of-pocket health care costs, the effects of inflation on social security, and the impact of the financial crisis on Americans' well-being.

The baby boom generation's entry into old age has led to an unprecedented increase in the elderly population. The social and economic effects of this shift are significant. This title takes a eclectic view of the subject. It offers in-depth analysis of the effects of retirement plans, employer contributions, and housing prices on retirement.

Accelerating energy innovation could be an important part of an effective response to the threat of climate change. This book explores the role that public and private policy have played in enabling - and sustaining - swift innovation in a variety of industries, from agriculture and the life sciences to information technology.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the federal government has pursued regulatory reforms, including proposals to monitor systemic risk. This book addresses the challenges of measuring risk, and looks at the means of measuring systemic risk and explores alternative approaches.

Demographic studies help make sense of key aspects of the economy, offering insight into trends in fertility, mortality, immigration, and labor force participation, as well as age, gender, and race-specific trends in health and disability. This book explores the connections between demography and economics.

Focusing on the costs and benefits of two important instruments of economic policy, this title explores the trade-offs between litigation and regulation, the circumstances in which one approach may outperform the other, and the principles that affect the choice between addressing particular economic activities with one system or the other.

Using economic models and empirical analysis, this title examines a range of agricultural and biofuel policy issues with regard to their effects on American agricultural and agrarian insurance markets.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) highlight the potential of this technology to affect productivity, growth, inequality, market power, innovation, and employment. This volume seeks to set the agenda for economic research on the impact of AI. It covers four broad themes: AI as a general purpose technology; the relationships between AI, growth, jobs, and inequality; regulatory responses to changes brought on by AI; and the effects of AI on the way economic research is conducted. It explores the economic influence of machine learning, the branch of computational statistics that has driven much of the recent excitement around AI, as well as the economic impact of robotics and automation and the potential economic consequences of a still-hypothetical artificial general intelligence. The volume provides frameworks for understanding the economic impact of AI and identifies a number of open research questions. Contributors: Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Philippe Aghion, Collège de France Ajay Agrawal, University of Toronto Susan Athey, Stanford University James Bessen, Boston University School of Law Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School of Management Colin F. Camerer, California Institute of Technology Judith Chevalier, Yale School of Management Iain M. Cockburn, Boston University Tyler Cowen, George Mason University Jason Furman, Harvard Kennedy School Patrick Francois, University of British Columbia Alberto Galasso, University of Toronto Joshua Gans, University of Toronto Avi Goldfarb, University of Toronto Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School Ginger Zhe Jin, University of Maryland Benjamin F. Jones, Northwestern University Charles I. Jones, Stanford University Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University Anton Korinek, Johns Hopkins University Mara Lederman, University of Toronto Hong Luo, Harvard Business School John McHale, National University of Ireland Paul R. Milgrom, Stanford University Matthew Mitchell, University of Toronto Alexander Oettl, Georgia Institute of Technology Andrea Prat, Columbia Business School Manav Raj, New York University Pascual Restrepo, Boston University Daniel Rock, MIT Sloan School of Management Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University Robert Seamans, New York University Scott Stern, MIT Sloan School of Management Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan Joseph E. Stiglitz. Columbia University Chad Syverson, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Matt Taddy, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Steven Tadelis, University of California, Berkeley Manuel Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv University Daniel Trefler, University of Toronto Catherine Tucker, MIT Sloan School of Management Hal Varian, University of California, Berkeley

"Agriculture plays a key role in economic growth and development. As recently as 1800, more than half the population in most European countries worked on farms and in fields, though this shifted with the industrial revolution. Agricultural efficiencies were not immediately apparent until the middle of the 20th century when yields began to increase and they have continued to grow at a steady pace since. At the same time, inflation-adjusted agricultural commodity prices have been trending downward as increases in supply outpaced increases in demand. Food is an essential good, and while its price is currently low due to its abundance, it is responsible for a large consumer surplus given the highly inelastic demand. Understanding the factors that contribute to the upward trend in yields is of first-order importance for food security and human welfare. This book contains eight chapters that examine the factors behind the remarkably steady increase in yields around the globe, in order to better understand whether this trend can continue into the future and whether it will impose significant environmental externalities. The volume provides fresh and original analyses using methodological innovations to analyze recently available micro-level data sets"--

"This book provides a comprehensive treatment, with chapters that examine the returns to undergrad education, how costs differ by major, the productivity of for-profit schools, the productivity of various types of faculty, how online education has affected the market, and more. This work addresses the five challenges to assessing productivity in higher ed: multiple outcomes, the "multi-product" nature of institutions, selection, attribution, and the public nature of some benefits"--

This volume explores the intersection of the scientific, clinical, and economic factors affecting the development of PPM, including its effects on the drug pipeline, on reimbursement of PPM diagnostics and treatments, and on funding of the requisite underlying research; and it examines recent empirical applications of PPM.

Case studies examining how firms co-ordinate economic activity in the face of asymmetric information are the focus of this volume. It studies the development of the flow of information and co-ordination of economic activity within and between firms.

In this study, policymakers in the Reagan administration and academics offer a view of how and why economic policy in the 1980s developed the way it did. Monetary and exchange rate policy, tax policy and budget issues are discussed here.

Not-for-profit organizations play a critical role in the American economy. We know such firms don't try to maximize profits, but what do they maximize? Dealing with this question, this book looks at many aspects of not-for-profit operations, from the problems of fundraising, endowments, and governance to issues, such as hospital advertising.

Considers globalization in the context of the history of international trade. Its eleven papers explore a synthesized variety of topics, including how the process of globalization can be measured by the long-term integration of markets, what trends and questions develop as markets converge and diverge, and others.