Innovation + Equality

Innovation + Equality
Author: Joshua Gans
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2019-10-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 026204322X

How to get more innovation and more equality. Is economic inequality the price we pay for innovation? The amazing technological advances of the last two decades—in such areas as artificial intelligence, genetics, and materials—have benefited society collectively and rewarded innovators handsomely: we get cool smartphones and technology moguls become billionaires. This contributes to a growing wealth gap; in the United States; the wealth controlled by the top 0.1 percent of households equals that of the bottom ninety percent. Is this the inevitable cost of an innovation-driven economy? Economist Joshua Gans and policy maker Andrew Leigh make the case that pursuing innovation does not mean giving up on equality—precisely the opposite. In this book, they outline ways that society can become both more entrepreneurial and more egalitarian. All innovation entails uncertainty; there's no way to predict which new technologies will catch on. Therefore, Gans and Leigh argue, rather than betting on the future of particular professions, we should consider policies that embrace uncertainty and protect people from unfavorable outcomes. To this end, they suggest policies that promote both innovation and equality. If we encourage innovation in the right way, our future can look more like the cheerful techno-utopia of Star Trek than the dark techno-dystopia of The Terminator.

Innovation and Inequality

Innovation and Inequality
Author: Gilles Saint-Paul
Publisher:
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2008-07-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Offers a theoretical analysis of the important mechanisms by which technical progress and innovation affect the distribution of income. This book shows how the structure of demand changes as the economy becomes wealthier, in ways that may potentially harm the poorest segments of the workforce and economy.

Innovation and Inequality

Innovation and Inequality
Author: Gilles Saint-Paul
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 140082477X

Karl Marx predicted a world in which technical innovation would increasingly devalue and impoverish workers, but other economists thought the opposite, that it would lead to increased wages and living standards--and the economists were right. Yet in the last three decades, the market economy has been jeopardized by a worrying phenomenon: a rise in wage inequality that has left a substantial portion of the workforce worse off despite the continuing productivity growth enjoyed by the economy. Innovation and Inequality examines why. Studies have firmly established a link between this worrying trend and technical change, in particular the rise of new information technologies. In Innovation and Inequality, Gilles Saint-Paul provides a synthetic theoretical analysis of the most important mechanisms by which technical progress and innovation affect the distribution of income. He discusses the conditions under which skill-biased technical change may reduce the wages of the least skilled, and how improvements in information technology allow "superstars" to increase the scale of their activity at the expense of less talented workers. He shows how the structure of demand changes as the economy becomes wealthier, in ways that may potentially harm the poorest segments of the workforce and economy. An essential text for graduate students and an indispensable resource for researchers, Innovation and Inequality reveals how different categories of workers gain or lose from innovation, and how that gain or loss crucially depends on the nature of the innovation.

Innovation and Inequality

Innovation and Inequality
Author: Susan Cozzens
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2014-05-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1781951675

Susan Cozzens, Dhanaraj Thakur, and the other co-authors ask how the benefits and costs of emerging technologies are distributed amongst different countries _ some rich and some poor. Examining the case studies of five technologies across eight countri

Technology and Inequality

Technology and Inequality
Author: Jonathan P. Allen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2017-06-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319569589

This book will summarize what we know about technology and inequality across disciplines, and seek out new ways to analyze this relationship based on technology and business practices, with the objective of restoring digital technology as an engine of opportunity. Besides the unique focus on the role of technology in inequality, the book will have a unifying theme of tracing wealth creation and wealth capture in the technology sector, and relating specific practices—what technology companies actually do—to larger shifts in wealth and power. A clear conceptual framework will be used to analyze key industry case studies: search engines, social media, and the ‘sharing’ economy.

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Inequality

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Inequality
Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2021-06-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781032089911

This book hopes to stimulate discussion about how entrepreneurship and innovation contribute to growing inequalities in territories. This will help bridge the gap between research and practice on the role of territory dynamics and regional development. The book begins by examining the growing inequality in regions, which has resulted in lagging economic development. The need to shift current economic policy towards spatial inequality through harnessing the innovative capabilities of regions is examined. The book puts forth a case for reversing the inequality that is evident in lagging regions as a way to reinvigorate territories. The book should appeal to researchers, policy makers, business leaders and the general public interested in territorial dynamics and development.

Using Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation to Mitigate Wealth Inequality

Using Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation to Mitigate Wealth Inequality
Author: Thomas S. Lyons
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2018-11-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1547400463

Economic inequality continues to contribute to political and social instability around the world. This instability stifles development and results in widening the wealth gap between the "haves" and "have nots," further eroding stability. It has been argued that entrepreneurship is a prime contributor to this vicious cycle. Using Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation to Mitigate Wealth Inequality contends that this is only true when the opportunity for entrepreneurship is limited to a few. The authors maintain that when entrepreneurship is open to anyone who is properly motivated, innovative, and has a goal of growth for their enterprise, it helps build wealth for a greater number of people. The concept of "social entrepreneurship" is introduced, where entrepreneurship becomes a vehicle for explicitly addressing community-based economic and social challenges using markets. The book uses examples of entrepreneurial projects and programs that have attempted to address inequality to discuss entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy and its role in addressing the challenges of economic inequality. It advocates thinking and acting systemically, creating and sustaining entrepreneurial support ecosystems, in order to generate the synergy required to scale-up development and transform our economies and provides a distinctive perspective on a pressing social and economic issue, with significant implications for the future of the United States and the world.

The Myths of Technology

The Myths of Technology
Author: Judith Burnett
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781433101281

This book questions whether technologies are the rational, tangible, scientific, forward-thinking, neutral objects they are so often perceived to be, exploring instead how powerful, mythic ideas about technologies drive our social understanding and our expectations of them. Against a rising tide of information, we encounter significant technological, scientific, and medical advances which promise to create an educated, humane, and equal world. This book explores that promise, deconstructing technologies to conclude that though they do afford us significant and empowering advances, they remain largely cloaked in mystery, and often promise more than they can deliver. Contributors from diverse intellectual backgrounds and political and epistemological stances - spanning sociology and psychosocial investigations, innovation studies, and scientists - combine philosophical inquiry and empirical case studies to create a book which is at once provocative, innovative, and exciting in the challenges it poses.

Leapfrogging Inequality

Leapfrogging Inequality
Author: Rebecca Winthrop
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0815735715

Exemplary stories of innovation from around the world In an age of rising inequality, getting a good education increasingly separates the haves from the have nots. In countries like the United States, getting a good education is one of the most promising routes to upper-middle-class status, even more so than family wealth. Experts predict that by 2030, 825 million children will reach adulthood without basic secondary-level skills, and it will take a century for the most marginalized youth to achieve the educational levels that the wealthiest enjoy today. But these figures do not even account for the range of skills and competencies needed to thrive today in work, citizenship, and life. In a world where the ability to manipulate knowledge and information, think critically, and collaboratively solve problems are essential to thrive, access to a quality education is crucial for all young people. In Leapfrogging Inequality, researchers chart a new path for global education by examining the possibility of leapfrogging—harnessing innovation to rapidly accelerate educational progress—to ensure that all young people develop the skills they need for a fast-changing world. Analyzing a catalog of nearly 3,000 global education innovations, the largest such collection to date, researchers explore the potential of current practices to enable such a leap. As part of this analysis, the book presents an evidence-based framework for getting ahead in education, which it grounds in the here-and-now by narrating exemplary stories of innovation from around the world. Together, these stories and resources will inspire educators, investors, leaders of nongovernmental organizations, and policymakers alike to rally around a new vision of educational progress—one that ensures we do not leave yet another generation of young people behind.

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Inequality

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Inequality
Author: Vanessa Ratten
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2019-08-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000682501

This book hopes to stimulate discussion about how entrepreneurship and innovation contribute to growing inequalities in territories. This will help bridge the gap between research and practice on the role of territory dynamics and regional development. The book begins by examining the growing inequality in regions, which has resulted in lagging economic development. The need to shift current economic policy towards spatial inequality through harnessing the innovative capabilities of regions is examined. The book puts forth a case for reversing the inequality that is evident in lagging regions as a way to reinvigorate territories. The book should appeal to researchers, policy makers, business leaders and the general public interested in territorial dynamics and development.