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  • Innovation Commons: The Origin of Economic Growth

    Innovation Commons by Potts, Jason;

    The Origin of Economic Growth

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    Product details:

    • Publisher OUP USA
    • Date of Publication 13 August 2019

    • ISBN 9780190937508
    • Binding Paperback
    • No. of pages280 pages
    • Size 155x231x20 mm
    • Weight 386 g
    • Language English
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    Short description:

    This book presents a new theory of what happens at the very early stages of innovation. It describes how a new technology is transformed into an entrepreneurial opportunity and becomes the origin of economic growth. The surprising answer is cooperation. The origin of innovation begins in the commons.

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    Long description:

    Innovation is among the most important topics in understanding economic sustained economic growth. Jason Potts argues that the initial stages of innovation require cooperation under uncertainty and draws from insights on the solving of commons problems to shed light on policies and conditions conducive to the creation of new firms and industries.
    The problems of innovation commons are overcome, Potts shows, when there are governance institutions that incentivize cooperation, thereby facilitating the pooling of distributed information, knowledge, and other inputs. The entrepreneurial discovery of an economic opportunity is thus an emergent institution resulting from the formation of a cooperative group, under conditions of extreme uncertainty, working toward the mutual purpose of opportunity discovery about a nascent technology or new idea. Among the problems commons address are those of the identity; cooperation; consent; monitoring; punishment; and independence. A commons is efficient compared to the creation of alternative economic institutions that involve extensive contracting and networks, private property rights and price signals, or public goods (i.e. firms, markets, and governments). In other words, the origin of innovation is not entrepreneurial action per se, but the creation of a common pool resource from which entrepreneurs can discover opportunities.
    Potts' framework draws on the evolutionary theory of cooperation and institutional theory of the commons. It also has important implications for understanding the origin of firms and industries, and for the design of innovation policy. Beginning with a discussion of problems of knowledge and coordination as well as their implications for common pool environments, the book then explores instances of innovation commons and the lifecycle of innovation, including increased institutionalization and rigidness. Potts also discusses the possible implications of the commons framework for policies to sustain innovation dynamics.

    The way in which he explains the emergence of new industries by integrating the topic of innovation with a theory of social cooperation structured by rules is masterful.

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    Table of Contents:

    Foreword - Against Prometheus
    Acknowledgements
    Chapter 1 We innovate together
    Introduction
    1.1 The origin of innovation
    1.2 The commons in the innovation commons
    What is a commons?
    An innovation commons is a knowledge commons
    Common-pooling and peer-production in an innovation commons
    1.3 Clunkers and Homebrew
    1.4 The Republic of Letters
    1.5 Why groups, why cooperation, why open?
    Overview of book
    Chapter 2 The innovation problem
    Introduction
    2.1 Trade and new knowledge explain growth
    2.2 The innovation problem as economic problem
    The Schumpeter-Nelson-Arrow version of the innovation problem
    The Hayek version of the innovation problem
    2.3 The origin of the innovation trajectory
    2.4 The economic problem of innovation
    2.5 Innovation problem is a collective action problem
    2.6 Innovation happens in groups
    Discovery failure
    Discovery costs
    Conclusion
    Chapter 3 Innovation is a knowledge problem
    Introduction
    3.1 Innovation problem I - Social contract problem (McCloskey)
    3.2 Innovation problem II - Distributed knowledge problem (Hayek)
    3.3 Innovation problem III - Idiosyncratic risk (Williamson)
    3.4 Innovation problem IV - Rules for cooperation (Ostrom)
    Conclusion
    Chapter 4 Four theories of the innovation commons
    Introduction
    4.1 Two commons
    4.2 Evolution of cooperation
    4.3 Defense against enclosure
    4.4 Institutional uncertainty
    Conclusion
    Chapter 5 Origin of the innovation trajectory
    Introduction
    5.1 The zero-th phase of the innovation trajectory
    5.2 The fundamental transformation
    5.3 The Proto-Entrepreneur, the Dual-Discovery Problem, and the Two Commons Solution
    The Proto-Entrepreneur seeks Non-Price Information
    The Proto-Entrepreneur faces a Dual Discovery Problem
    The Two Commons Solution
    5.4 Modelling the innovation commons
    5.5 The innovation commons in institutional space
    5.6 The innovation commons as higher-order discovery
    Conclusion
    Chapter 6 Rules of the Innovation commons
    Introduction
    6.1 Cooperation behind the veil of ignorance
    6.2 An emergent social order
    6.3 The use of society in knowledge
    6.4 Problems the innovation commons must solve
    Identity, Cooperation, Consent, Monitoring, Punishment and conflict, Independence, Economic problems the rules must solve
    6.5 Origin of rules
    6.6 Core Design Principles
    6.7 Can evolution explain the innovation commons?
    Evolution of cooperation
    Evolution of cooperation in the commons
    Is cooperation for innovation the institutional equivalent of war?
    The innovation commons as higher-order discovery
    Conclusion - We innovate together
    Chapter 7 Lifecycle of an innovation commons
    Introduction
    7.1 Institutions of collective innovation
    Institutional varieties of collective innovation
    Institutional transformations over an innovation trajectory
    7.2 Origin of industry
    7.3 The standard model of industry associations
    7.4 A new model of industry associations; private governance for discovery of public goods
    7.5 Industry associations construct niches
    7.6 The demic phase of industry associations
    Conclusion
    Chapter 8 Theory of Innovation Policy
    Introduction
    8.1 The innovation commons critique of modern innovation policy
    Theory of innovation policy
    Mechanisms of innovation policy
    Critique of Innovation Policy
    Political economy of innovation policy
    Rules as policy
    Innovation policy as a public and private goods problem
    Innovation Policy and its discontents, a summary
    8.2 Discovery Failure
    8.3 Efficient Institutions of Innovation Policy
    The Comparative Institutional Approach
    The low social costs (and high private benefits) of innovation commons
    8.4 New innovation policy
    Diagnosing the innovation problem
    Benefits to groups, regions, nations, and the world
    This comes from civil society
    The innovation economy cannot be planned
    Conclusion
    Chapter 9 Inclusive Innovation Policy
    Introduction
    9.1 Two types of innovation policy
    9.2 Innovation seen and unseen
    9.3 Against innovation: theory
    9.4 A better approach to innovation policy
    9.5 Inclusive innovation: A new social contract
    Chapter 10 Conclusion
    10.1 The institutional origin of innovation
    10.2 Implications for economic theory
    10.3 The innovation sharing economy
    References
    Index
    Figures and Tables
    Figure 1.1 Economic goods
    Figure 2.1 The innovation commons as the zero-th phase of an innovation trajectory
    Figure 3.1 Market (choice) versus governance (contracting) models of innovation economics
    Figure 3.2 Comparative institutions of innovation contracting
    Figure 7.1 Public and private ordering definitions of industry
    Figure 8.1 The Institutional Possibility Frontier (source Djankov et al 2003)
    Figure 8.2 Institutional possibilities of innovation policy
    Figure 9.1 Two innovation policy approaches
    Figure 9.2 Why friends of innovation prefer to engage government
    Table 2.1 The innovation problem as market failure vs collective action
    Table 2.2 Transformation costs, transaction costs and discovery costs
    Table 2.3 Taxonomy of discovery costs
    Table 6.1 Design rules
    Table 7.1 Institutional varieties of Collective Innovation
    Table 8.1 Innovation policy ranged between private and public instruments.

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