The Laurence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce exceptional innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world.The inaugural medal winner, the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP), is an innovative not-for-profit organization that promotes "participatory budgeting," an inclusive process that empowers community members to make informed decisions about public spending. Mor...

The United States patent system has become sand rather than lubricant in the wheels of American progress. Such is the premise behind this provocative and timely book by two of the nation's leading experts on patents and economic innovation.Innovation and Its Discontents tells the story of how recent changes in patenting--an institutional process that was created to nurture innovation--have wreaked havoc on innovators, businesses, and economic productivity. Jaffe and Lerner...

How governments can do a better job of supporting entrepreneurship and venture capitalSilicon Valley, Singapore, Tel Aviv—the global hubs of entrepreneurial activity—all bear the marks of government investment. Yet, for every public intervention that spurs entrepreneurial activity, there are many failed efforts that waste untold billions in taxpayer dollars. When has governmental sponsorship succeeded in boosting growth, and when has it fallen terribly short? Should...

How corporations have increasingly embraced the sharing of knowledge as a competitive strategyInnovation is more important than ever, yet breakthroughs are becoming harder to achieve. Modern technologies, from artificial intelligence and 5G networks to biotech, are so complex that they require collaboration across companies, industries, and countries. Increasingly, firms are discovering that sharing knowledge can be more powerful, and more profitable, than guarding...

Drawing on the tools of game design to fix democracy.Anyone who has ever been to a public hearing or community meeting would agree that participatory democracy can be boring. Hours of repetitive presentations, alternatingly alarmist or complacent, for or against, accompanied by constant heckling, often with no clear outcome or decision. Is this the best democracy can offer? In Making Democracy Fun, Josh Lerner offers a novel solution for the sad state of o...

How to overcome barriers to the long-term investments that are essential for solving the world’s biggest problemsThere has never been a greater need for long-term investments to tackle the world’s most difficult problems, such as climate change and decaying infrastructure. And it is increasingly unlikely that the public sector will be willing or able to fill this gap. If these critical needs are to be met, the major pools of long-term, patient capital—including pen...

Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely recognized as key drivers of long-term economic growth. Understanding the forces that influence them is essential for policy design. Building on the twenty-year legacy of the NBER Innovation Policy and the Economy series, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy showcases recent research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policy. The volume reports on five research projects. First, leveraging detailed data from the Business For...

This volume presents studies from experts in twelve industries, providing insights into the future role of innovation and entrepreneurship in driving economic growth across sectors.We live in an era in which innovation and entrepreneurship seem ubiquitous, particularly in regions like Silicon Valley, Boston, and the Research Triangle Park. But many metrics of economic growth, such as productivity growth and business dynamism, have been at best modest in recent year...

Worship Together in Your Church as in Heavenis a practical and foundational resource for pastors and worshipleaders of all kinds. It addresses an urgent need in the church today:as our communities become increasingly diverse, how can we offer worshipthat is authentic and engaging for all of God’s people, includinglongtime church members? The authors offer an empathetic, step-by-stepapproach, providing readers with knowledge, skills, and st...

Americans have been shocked by media reports of the dismal working conditions in factories that make clothing for U.S. companies. But while well intentioned, many of these reports about child labor and sweatshop practices rely on stereotypes of how Third World factories operate, ignoring the complex economic dynamics driving the global apparel industry.To dispel these misunderstandings, Jane L. Collins visited two very different apparel firms and their factories in the United State...

Across the US, cities and metropolitan areas are facing huge economic and competitive challenges that Washington won't, or can't, solve. The good news is that networks of metropolitan leaders mayors, business and labor leaders, educators, and philanthropists are stepping up and powering the nation forward. These state and local leaders are doing the hard work to grow more jobs and make their communities more prosperous, and they're investing in infrastructure, making manufacturing a pr...

Find the right innovation modelInnovation is a much-used buzzword these days, but when it comes to creating and implementing a new idea, many companies miss the mark-plans backfire, consumer preferences shift, or tried-and-true practices fail to work in a new context. So is innovation just a low-odds crapshoot?In The Architecture of Innovation, Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner-one of the foremost experts on how innovation works-says in...