Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator

by Joshua Gans, Andrew Leigh, Lawrence H. Summers (Foreword)

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 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 .

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Technology, Science, Politics

192 pages, Hardcover

Published October 29, 2019

About the author

Joshua Gans is a Professor of Strategic Management and holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management, the University of Toronto (with a cross-appointment in the Department of Economics). Joshua is also Chief Economist of the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab.

Reviews

[Wendelle]

Don't dismiss this book because the title seems to suggest yet another populist but empty manifesto. This book is written by two brilliant level-headed economists and the essays they pen here are a veritable geyser of ideas about how to optimistically promote innovation-- but from the approach that equality of opportunity is both a laudable goal and a compulsory prerequisite for an innovative society. The authors spend the first few chapters presenting and analyzing both the optimists' and the pessimists' views on questions such as: is the new technological era a Renaissance or a Dark Age for people in manual, routine, or abstract sectors of work? Will continued technological progress lead to computer-aided human superpower, or our annihilation? Does innovation require, and cause, inequality?

Some important insights uncovered by this book is the unimpeachable truth about the role of government support in fomenting innovation: government research programs, and not private labs or tech corporations, are directly responsible for voice recognition, GPS, multitouch screens, lithium batteries, the internet, and cellphone technology. 100% of new pharmaceutical drugs invented in recent years in the US are the product of grants by the National Institutes of Health. Furthermore, opportunity and robust networks in a permissive society spur new inventors to pursue the risk-taking path of patents and science-based entrepreneurship. The authors in particular make sure they put in a good word for the accelerator they spearhead within University of Toronto's Rotman School, the Creative Destruction Lab.

The authors propose several recommendations, including the need to limit or stagger the duration the patents and trademarks so that they spur inventors without indulging hidebound creatures like Martin Shkreli from monopolizing against lowered costs or further innovations, and the need for collective society to provide insurance or continued education or learning support so that the populace can take risks and continue to improve their economic capital. They also stress the importance of prioritizing the quality of teacher training.

Their ten ideas for boosting innovation are:
a) encourage healthy competition between research funders
b)foster moonshot innovation with grants
c)balance stakeholder interests in IP laws
d)build innovation training for everyone
e)use promises and prizes to encourage innovation
f) beware of tax breaks
g)reduce barriers to entry for entrepreneurs
h)build catalytic networks, entrepreneurial ecosystems
i) free up public sector science and university science for innovation
j)update national statistics

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It's short, accessible and explores a topic I find fascinating - the intersection between innovation and inequality. Gans and Leigh explore the big questions in this area: Should we optimistic about the potential of tech to make our world better? Or pessimistic because productivity improvements are slowing down? Will innovation make our jobs more productive and satisfying? Or will robots take our most of our jobs altogether? Does innovation require inequality? Does innovation cause inequality?

Gans and Leigh are clearly of the view that innovation and inequality need not go hand in hand. But their analysis is mostly conceptual and very US-centric. I would have loved to see a detailed examination of countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Germany. All are ranked top 10 in on the Global Innovation Index and have relatively low inequality. How are they achieving this? What are they doing in practice that is contributing to these outcomes.

A great read though, with a solid set of policy suggestions.

[Lari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking, especially after the changes that have happened in 2020.

[Nick Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief, US focused and a bit scattergun

[Khalid Kurji · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a synthesis of current research within a broad framework than the bold proposal type thing I expected