Work

Inducement Prizes and Innovation

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: We examine the effect of prizes on innovation using data on awards for technological development offered by the Royal Agricultural Society of England at annual competitions between 1839 and 1939. We find large effects of the prizes on competitive entry and we also detect an impact of the prizes on the quality of contemporaneous patents, especially when prize categories were set by a strict rotation scheme, thereby mitigating the potentially confounding effect that they targeted only “hot” technology sectors. Prizes encouraged competition and medals were more important than monetary awards. The boost to innovation we observe cannot be explained by the re-direction of existing inventive activity.

Source: Journal of Industrial Economics

DOI: 10.1111/joie.12002

Authors: Liam Brunt, Josh Lerner, Tom Nicholas

Institutions: Norwegian School of Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research, Harvard University

Language: English

Topic: Intellectual Property and Patents

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W3123840928

FWCI: 36.97

Cites: 31

Cited by: 162

Related to: 10