TY  - JOUR
AU  - Maurer,Stephen M.
AU  - Scotchmer,Suzanne
TI  - Procuring Knowledge
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9903
PY  - 2003
Y2  - August 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9903
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9903.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Suzanne Scotchmer
Department of Economics
Evans Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA  94720-3880
Tel: 510/643-8562
Fax: 510/643-9657
E-Mail: scotch@berkeley.edu
AB  - There is growing public interest in alternatives to intellectual property including, but not limited to, prizes and government grants. We argue that there is no single best mechanism for supporting research. Rather, mechanisms can only be compared within specific creative environments. We collect various historical and contemporary examples of alternative incentives, and relate them to models of the creative process. We give an explanation for why federally funded R&D has moved from an intramural activity to largely a grant process. Finally, we observe that much research is supported by a hybrid system of public and private sponsorship, and explain why this makes sense in some circumstances.
ER  -