Almost all firms in developing countries have fewer than 10 workers, with the modal firm consisting of just the owner. Are there potential high-growth entrepreneurs with the ability to grow their firms beyond this size? And, if so, can public policy help alleviate the constraints that prevent...

Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström were awarded the 2016 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their fundamental contributions to contract theory. This article offers a short summary and discussion of their path breaking work.

We investigate the impact of the "Metrobank Award for Outstanding Teachers" using a unique dataset from a survey of teachers who competed from 1988 to 2010. Our study is one of the firsts to use income as the primary indicator of success. When the sample is limited to those who were actively...

The digital revolution has led to a quantification of ever more areas of human life and society. At the same time, there is an explosion of the number of awards, which by their very nature are based on non-quantified performance. Will quantification take over completely, leading to...

Using a new identification strategy and unique, rich data on Nobel laureates, we show that being in new or multiple locations, as measures of exposure to novel combinations of ideas, and the number of other local important innovators, all increase the probability that eventual Nobel laureates...

The traditional view is that patents and prizes stand in stark contrast to one another as means for promoting innovation. On this view, patents are government grants of private property rights that result in market-based, ex post rewards for innovative activity in the form of supracompetitive...

Awards are a widespread phenomenon. They cater to the fundamental desire for social recognition and serve as a valuable incentive to influence behaviour. The study of awards such as medals, prizes and titles has in recent years gained momentum in economics, complementing the longstanding focus...