The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited.

• Position: Bureau Books - Conference notes

The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited, edited by Josh Lerner and Scott Stern, is an NBER Conference Report that addresses a range of fundamental questions about the economics of innovation and technological change. Among the topics discussed are how institutions such as universities, the environment surrounding patent policy, and other factors together affect the environment for innovation; the effect of public and private research funding on the rate of scientific progress; and how "open research" and the diffusion of information technology can influence knowledge accumulation more generally. The volume is available from the University of...