Public Accountability: Evaluating Technology-Based Institutions presents guidelines for evaluating the research performance of technology-based public institutions, and illustrates these guidelines through case studies conducted at one technology-based public institution, the National Institute...

This paper explains that when there is great uncertainty about which elements of knowledge must be combined to make an invention, the likelihood of invention increases markedly—by many orders of magnitude—when there are numerous diverse research organizations, rather than just a few. The...

The paper presents a model in which government standards regarding toxic air emissions increase R & D for process innovations that reduce pollution. To estimate the model, primary data about manufacturers' process R & D aiming to reduce the toxic air emissions of chemicals targeted in Title III...

Estimation supports a theoretical role for emissions standards: to reduce negative externalities caused by hazardous air emissions, government can set standards that cause firms to accept the uncertainty of R & D. The paper uses primary data about manufacturers' emissions-reducing process R & D....

Multimarket contact appears to be necessary for effective oligopolistic consensus in a concentrated industry when the industry's firms are diversified. Evidently, without multimarket contact, coordination breaks down because the diversified sellers have different costs and demands, and hence...

Within a public environment in which accountability is at the forefront, an important evaluation question is how to document the economic value of innovation-related outputs and outcomes from intramural research relative to the cost of funding an intramural research programme. In this paper, we...

Thinking of government as entrepreneur is a unique lens through which to view a subset of government actions. The lens is not a template for an evaluation of government policy; rather, it is a characterization that underscores the government's purposeful intent, ability to act in new and...