Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 2.

• Author: Jones, Benjamin

Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely recognized as key drivers of economic dynamics and long-term prosperity. This series communicates new findings about the determinants and implications of entrepreneurial and innovative activity across the economy.

In the first paper, Joseph Barberio, Jacob Becraft, Zied Ben Chaouch, Dimitris Bertsimas, Tasuku Kitada, Michael Li, Andrew Lo, Kevin Shi, and Qingyang Xu measure pharmaceutical firms' incentives to develop vaccines against prospective diseases, and document the high investment risks, low expected returns, and the rarity of pandemics. They analyze a portfolio approach to financing vaccine research.

Next, Daniel Hemel and Lisa Larrimore Ouellette describe the tradeoffs between quality, price, and access that arise after a generic pharmaceutical's patent expires, and explore the implications of these tradeoffs for regulatory policy.

The third paper, by Silvia Dalla Fontana and Ramana Nanda, examines the role of patents in the transition to a carbon-free world. The researchers find that although "net zero patents" are close to the scientific frontier, difficulties in commercializing inventions has resulted in a low level of funding from venture capitalists.

Jacquelyn Pless examines the effects of divestment from firms in carbon-intensive businesses on...