This article analyzes the trajectory and causes of the explosion of American corporate CEOs' compensation relative to that of average workers between 1958 and 2017. The historical data are presented and analyzed in more detail for 2016 and 2017. Important biases in alternative data sets are...

This paper advances the analysis of incentives for technological innovation by examining the conditions under which first mover advantages – e.g., a head start, the necessity for imitators to incur their own research and development costs, production cost advantages derived inter alia through...

This paper, written for a larger compendium edited by Dennis Mueller, examines key dynamic features of capitalistic economies and how prominent economists such as Schumpeter, Marx, Keynes, and von Mises perceived them. The emphasis is on the growth in real per capita income achieved by...

This paper, written for a conference at the University of Lisbon, surveys patterns since the 16th century in the governance of communications service providers - in order, the mails, telegraphy, the telephone, and radio. It analyzes the tendency for many communications service enterprises to be...

This paper provides an overview on 18 papers presented at a Stanford University conference on the Asian pharmaceutical industries. It begins by putting the contributions and growth of individual national industries in quantitative perspective. Several substantive issues are then addressed: (1)...

This paper, written for a conference at the Fordham University Law School, examines various facets of the “too big to fail” debate. It notes that in the current context, “too big to fail” may imply systemic risks from large financial institution size, compensating economies of scale,...