To stay on top of global competition, firms and governments often need to acquire innovative goods and services, including ideas and research, from their strategic suppliers. A careful design of procurement policy is crucial to make potential suppliers generate and sell the most suitable...

In this paper we argue that government procurement policy played a role in stimulating the wave of innovation that hit the US economy in the 1980's, as well as the simultaneous increase in inequality and in education attainment. Since the early 1980's U.S. policy makers began targeting...

It is well known that research and development (R&D) is an important engine for economic growth. Also, initial wealth inequality and subsequent economic growth are well known to be related. This paper links inequality and R&D-driven growth. It shows that in a class of economies where R&D is the...

This study explores the macroeconomics effects of labor unions in a two-country model of directed technical change in which the market size of each country determines the incentives for innovation. We find that an increase in the bargaining power of a wage-oriented union leads to a decrease in...

In this study, we analyze the effects of labor shortage in China on the direction of innovation in the US by incorporating production offshoring into a North-South model of directed technical change. We �find that if offshoring is present (absent) in equilibrium, then a decrease (an increase)...

In this study, we explore the effects of a change in unskilled labor in China on the direction of innovation in the US by incorporating production offshoring into a North-South model of directed technical change. We find that intellectual property rights (IPRs) and offshoring are different ways...

Researchers aiming to invent and develop innovative products and processes need to be continuously updated about at least a minimum fraction of the last relevant innovations. If the flow of new ideas is too intense researchers spend most of their time reading and hearing. This never lasting...

To foster innovation and growth should basic research be publicly or privately funded? This paper studies the impact of the gradual shift in the U.S. patent system towards the patentability and commercialization of the basic R&D undertaken by universities. We see this movement as making...

Inspired by the Chinese experience, we develop a Schumpeterian growth model of distance to frontier in which economic growth in the developing country is driven by domestic innovation as well as imitation and transfer of foreign technologies through foreign direct investment. We show that...

This study develops an R&D-based growth model with vertical and horizontal innovation to shed some light on the current debate on whether patent protection stimulates or stifles innovation. We analyze the effects of patent protection in the form of blocking patents. We show that patent...