Technological innovation drives human welfare (a picture is worth a thousand words; see Figure 1 of Robert Fogel’s “Catching Up with the Economy”). Businesses and government in the U.S. alone invest more than $800 billion a year in research and development, yet only a fraction of these investments succeed. My research studies how new science and technology are funded, and how innovators overcome the hurdles of turning new ideas into products and companies.
Theoretically, I focus on informational barriers to innovation. Kenneth Arrow observed that because the value of a new idea is not generally known, inventors must reveal their proprietary knowledge to convince others of its worth. Once revealed, the idea can be appropriated. This disclosure problem discourages inventors from sharing ideas with the investors and partners they need for commercial success. It compounds the usual informational challenges, such as adverse selection and moral hazard, found in other markets.
Although economists have long studied information frictions, empirical evidence on how they shape innovation is still scarce. The frictions are hard to observe and measure at scale, and studying them requires deep institutional knowledge as well as careful empirical design. I draw on my training as an empirical economist, my experience as a Thomas Alva Edison Research Fellow at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and my work as founder of Endless Frontier Labs, a program that helps scientific breakthroughs become high-growth businesses. Most of my recent papers pair this evidence with formal theory.
My research asks questions such as these. How are public funds allocated to scientific projects whose value is uncertain? Do patents help inventors commercialize their ideas, and how should patent systems be designed? What do startup accelerators actually add? How are talent and firms matched in innovative industries, and what explains racial and gender gaps in careers and in innovation?
My detailed research statement explains more, and papers are on my SSRN author page and Google Scholar profile.