Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Texas Law Review

Abstract

Beyond the Patents-Prizes Debate invites us to take a hard look at how government policies promote innovation. Among approaches, Daniel Hemel and Lisa Ouellette consider not only the standard choices of patents, grants, and prizes, but also make a powerful case for the advantages of research and development (R&D) tax credits. By setting out a taxonomy of institutional choices, the authors empower us to consider which incentive structures are best suited to the diverse ways in which invention occurs and inventors operate, and to do so in light of the impact of each approach on who pays and who benefits. I will use this response to ask whether it would be feasible (or as feasible as the authors think) to try these approaches-in particular, tax credits-to determine how well they work in practice. But before moving to that question, I set out a few observations about the taxonomy itself.

First Page

131

Volume

92

Publication Date

2014

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