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Until quite recently, economists devoted little attention to the factors that influence the rate and direction of innovation. Much of the formal economic theory on technical change is really concerned with the description of the consequences of technological innovation at a very high level of aggregation or abstraction. (We have in mind here the works of such economists as Harrod, Hicks and Denison.) Little consideration has been paid to the study, at a less aggregated level, of the specific innovative outputs of industries and firms, and the forces explaining differences among industries, firms, and nations. Serious empirical work on biases and inducements in the innovation process, at an industry or firm level of analysis, is even more conspicuously lacking. A recent theoretical literature has been rather inconclusive–with results turning to a distressing degree upon the nature of the assumptions and the particular form of characterization of rational behavior.
David C. Mowery (Fri,) studied this question.