Innovation
Title
Innovation
Author
Jaffe, Adam B.
Research Area
Social Institutions
Topic
Work and the Economy
Abstract
Innovation is the creation and commercial implementation of a new product or process, often (but not necessarily) based on new technology. Innovation is a major source of private business success and competitive advantage, and is the major long‐term source in growth in per capita income in an economy. The innovation process is characterized by a high level of uncertainty, long lead times, and “spillovers” of economic benefits whereby innovators capture only a portion of the benefits created by an innovation. Intellectual property rights such as patents mitigate, but do not completely solve the problem of firms' inability to appropriate all of the benefits of their innovations. As a result, the private incentive to invest in innovation is lower than the social benefit, and so the private economy will invest too little in innovation in the absence of government intervention. Governments in developed economies support innovation both directly and indirectly.