Competition as a Discovery Procedure: Schumpeter Meets Hayek in a Model of Innovation

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
Year: 2014
Volume: 6
Issue: 3
Pages: 124-52

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

I incorporate an insight of Friedrich Hayek—that competition allows a thousand flowers to bloom, and discovers the best among them—into a model of Schumpeterian innovation. Firms face uncertainty about the optimal direction of innovation, so more innovations implies a higher expected value of the "best" innovation. The model accounts for two seemingly contradictory relationships reported in recent empirical studies—a positive relationship between competition and industry-level productivity growth, and an inverted-U relationship between competition and firm-level innovation. Notwithstanding the positive relationship between competition and growth, I find antitrust policy reduces industry-level growth.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aejmac:v:6:y:2014:i:3:p:124-52
Journal Field
Macro
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-24