Inequality and Innovativeness

Scott Page () and John Vandermeer ()
Additional contact information
Scott Page: University of Michigan
John Vandermeer: University of Michigan

Economics Bulletin, 2013, vol. 33, issue 1, A59

Abstract: In this note, we construct two theoretical models that analyze the relationship between inequality of access and rates of innovation as well as correlative data that show a negative correlation between income inequality and levels of innovativeness. Our two models suggest that unequal access to problems slows innovation by reducing the level and variety of human capital applied to problems. More interestingly, both models show that the rate of innovation decline becomes much more pronounced as problems become more difficult. Thus, the costs of inequality may be increasing as the problems that societies face become more challenging.

Keywords: Diversity; Inequality; Innovation; Problem Solving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D8 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-03-07
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2013/Volume33/EB-13-V33-I1-P59.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-13-00126

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economics Bulletin from AccessEcon
Bibliographic data for series maintained by John P. Conley ().