Distorting the Direction of Technological Change

This article explores a monopolist's incentive to distort the direction of technological change. For strategic reasons, the monopolist might invent and employ a socially undesirable technology. In so doing, he might jeopardize not only the vigor of product-market competition but also the development of socially desirable methods of production. As a result, technological dynamism cannot be considered a social virtue until its direction is compared with the social optimum