Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention
ResearchPublished 1959
A discourse on invention, defined broadly as the production of knowledge. From the viewpoint of welfare economics, determining optimal resource allocation for invention will depend on the technological characteristics of the invention process and on the nature of the market for knowledge. It is shown that the competitive system fails to achieve an optimal resource allocation in the case of invention because of increasing returns, inappropriability, and uncertainty. For an optimal allocation to invention, it is necessary for the government or some other agency not governed by profit-and-loss criteria to finance research and invention.
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Available
- Year: 1959
- Print Format: Paperback
- Paperback Pages: 25
- Paperback Price: $15.00
- Document Number: P-1856
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Arrow, Kenneth, Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention, RAND Corporation, P-1856, 1959. As of September 20, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P1856.html
Arrow, Kenneth, Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1959. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P1856.html. Also available in print form.
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