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The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth

This volume presents studies from experts in twelve industries, providing insights into the future role of innovation and entrepreneurship in driving economic growth across sectors.

We live in an era in which innovation and entrepreneurship seem ubiquitous, particularly in regions like Silicon Valley, Boston, and the Research Triangle Park. But many metrics of economic growth, such as productivity growth and business dynamism, have been at best modest in recent years. The resolution of this apparent paradox is dramatic heterogeneity across sectors, with some industries seeing robust innovation and entrepreneurship and others seeing stagnation. By construction, the impact of innovation and entrepreneurship on overall economic performance is the cumulative impact of their effects on individual sectors. Understanding the potential for growth in the aggregate economy depends, therefore, on understanding the sector-by-sector potential for growth. This insight motivates the twelve studies of different sectors that are presented in this volume. Each study identifies specific productivity improvements enabled by innovation and entrepreneurship, for example as a result of new production technologies, increased competition, or new organizational forms. These twelve studies, along with three synthetic chapters, provide new insights on the sectoral patterns and concentration of the contributions of innovation and entrepreneurship to economic growth. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Beyond 140 Characters
Michael J. Andrews, Aaron K. Chatterji, and Scott Stern
 
I. Productivity Drivers
1. The “Weighty” Manufacturing Sector: Transforming Raw Materials into Physical Goods
Erica R. H. Fuchs, Christophe Combemale, Kate S. Whitefoot, and Britta Glennon
2. Concentration and Agglomeration of IT Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Patenting
Chris Forman and Avi Goldfarb
3. Innovation, Growth, and Structural Change in American Agriculture
Julian M. Alston and Philip G. Pardey
Comment: Brian Davern Wright
4. Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Energy Sector
David Popp, Jacquelyn Pless, Ivan Haščič, and Nick Johnstone
 
II. The On-Demand Economy
5. What’s Driving Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Transportation Sector?
Derrick Choe, Alexander Oettl, and Rob Seamans
Comment: Gilles Duranton
6. The Recent Evolution of Physical Retail Markets: Online Retailing, Big Box Stores, and the Rise of Restaurants
Francine Lafontaine and Jagadeesh Sivadasan
Comment: Emek Basker
7. The Servicification of the US Economy: The Role of Startups versus Incumbent Firms
Mercedes Delgado, J. Daniel Kim, and Karen G. Mills
Comment: Sharat Ganapati
8. Digitization and Its Consequences for Creative-Industry Product and Labor Markets
Joel Waldfogel
Comment: Gustavo Manso
 
III. The Cost Disease Sectors
9. Innovation in the US Government
Joshua R. Bruce and John M. de Figueiredo
Comment: Manuel Trajtenberg
10. Venture Capital–Led Entrepreneurship in Health Care
Amitabh Chandra, Cirrus Foroughi, and Lauren Mostrom
11. Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Housing
Edward Kung
Comment: Jessie Handbury
12. Education and Innovation
Barbara Biasi, David Deming, and Petra Moser
Comment: Eleanor Wiske Dillon
Panel Remarks: Creating “Smart” Policy to Promote Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Karen G. Mills and Annie V. Dang
Panel Remarks: Measuring Business Innovation Using a Multidimensional Approach
Lucia Foster
13. Where Innovation Happens, and Where It Does Not
Benjamin F. Jones
 
Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index

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