Invisible Geniuses Could The Knowledge Frontier Advance Faster

The advancement of the knowledge frontier is crucial for technological innovation and human progress. Using novel data from the setting of mathematics, this paper establishes two results. First, we document that individuals who demonstrate exceptional talent in their teenage years have an irreplaceable ability to create new ideas over their lifetime, suggesting that talent is a central ingredient in the production of knowledge. Second, such talented individuals born in low- or middle-income countries are systematically less likely to become knowledge producers. Our findings suggest that policies to encourage exceptionally-talented youth to pursue scientific careers—especially those from lower income countries—could accelerate the advancement of the knowledge frontier.

Finance & Development, March 2021

This paper studies the impact of U.S. immigration barriers on global knowledge production. We present four key findings. First, among Nobel Prize winners and Fields Medalists, migrants to the U.S. play a central role in the global knowledge network—representing 20-33% of the frontier knowledge producers. Second, using novel survey data and hand-curated life-histories of International Math Olympiad (IMO) medalists, we show that migrants to the U.S. are up to six times more productive than migrants to other countries—even after accounting for talent during one’s teenage years. Third, financing costs are a key factor preventing foreign talent from migrating abroad to pursue their dream careers, particularly for talent from developing countries. Fourth, certain ‘push’ incentives that reduce immigration barriers—by addressing financing constraints for top foreign talent—could increase the global scientific output of future cohorts by 42 percent. We concludeby discussing policy options for the U.S. and the global scientific community.

The art and science of talent search: how to spot, assess, woo, and retain highly talented people. How do you find talent with a creative spark? To what extent can you predict human creativity, or is human creativity something irreducible before our eyes, perhaps to be spotted or glimpsed by intuition, but unique each time it appears? Obsessed with these questions, renowned economist Tyler Cowen and venture capitalist and entrepreneur Daniel Gross set out to study the art and science of finding talent at the highest level: the people with the creativity, drive, and insight to transform an organization and make everyone around them better. Cowen and Gross guide the reader through the major scientific research areas relevant for talent search, including how to conduct an interview, how much to weight intelligence, how to judge personality and match personality traits to jobs, how to evaluate talent in online interactions such as Zoom calls, why talented women are still undervalued and how to spot them, how to understand the special talents in people who have disabilities or supposed disabilities, and how to use delegated scouts to find talent. Talent appreciation is an art, but it is an art you can improve through study and experience. Identifying underrated, brilliant individuals is one of the simplest ways to give yourself an organizational edge, and this is the book that will show you how to do that. Talent is both for people searching for talent and for those who wish to be searched for, found, and discovered.

Handbook of Industrial Organization Volume 4 highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters. Each chapter is written by an international board of authors. Part of the renowned Handbooks in Economics series Chapters are contributed by some of the leading experts in their fields A source, reference and teaching supplement for industrial organizations or industrial economists

A stellar cast of economists examines the roles of creative destruction in addressing today’s most important political and social questions. Inequality is rising, growth is stagnant while rents accumulate, the environment is suffering, and the COVID-19 pandemic exposed every crack in the systems of global capitalism. How can we restart growth? Can our societies be made fairer? Editors Ufuk Akcigit and John Van Reenen assemble a world-leading group of social scientists and theorists to consider these questions and, in particular, how ideas about the economics of creative destruction may help solve the problems we face. Most closely associated with Joseph Schumpeter, formalized by Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt in the 1990s, the idea of innovation as creative destruction has become foundational in economics, reaching into almost every corner of the discipline—both theoretically and empirically. Now, at a time of rapid and disorienting change, is an opportune moment to pull the disparate strands of research together to assess what has been learned and continue an intellectual project that can aid economic decision-making in the decades to come. The cutting-edge work in The Economics of Creative Destruction focuses on innovation and growth. Contributors offer illuminating insights into monopoly and inequality, the nature of the social safety net, climate change, and the ups and downs of regulation. Collectively, they suggest that governance has a role to play in capitalism, maximizing its benefits and minimizing its risks.

At the cutting edge of the subject area, the authors bring the macroeconomics that researchers and policymakers use today into focus. By developing a coherent set of tractable models, the book enables students to explore and make sense of the pressing questions facing global economies.Carlin and Soskice connect students with contemporary research and policy in macroeconomics. The authors' 3-equation model - extended to include the financial system and with an integrated treatment of inequality - equips students with a method they can apply to the enduring challenges stirred by the financial crisis and the Great Recession.Key features* Engaged with the latest developments in macroeconomic research, policy, and debate, the authors make the cutting edge accessible to undergraduate readers* The theme of inequality is integrated throughout in modelling and applications, with incomplete contracts in labour and credit markets underpinning the presence of involuntary unemployment and credit constraints* The content distils business cycles into a 3-equation model of the demand side, the supply side, and the policy maker, providing a realistic and transparent model which students can deploy to address the questions that interest them* Open economy modelling for both flexible and fixed exchange rate regimes builds on the same foundations and handles oil and climate shocks, as well as the Eurozone crisis* Features thorough treatment of the financial system and how to integrate the financial and business cycles, including coverage on policy design and implementation for financial stability in the wake of the 2008-9 financial crisis and an exploration of hysteresis in the context of the Great Recession* Comprehensive coverage of monetary policy including the ample reserves regime and of fiscal policy and debt dynamics* Unified treatment of exogenous and endogenous growth models emphasizing the different mechanisms through which diminishing returns to capital can be offset, while Chapter 17 on the ICT revolution examines the implications of innovation and technological change on the future of work and inequality* Contains a chapter considering contemporary quantitative macroeconomics research - including the Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian (HANK) model - exposing students to the tools that researchers currently use, as well as the benefits and limitations of these methods* End-of-chapter 'Checklist questions' enable students to assess their comprehension, while 'Problems' prompt students to apply independent critical thought* Also available as an e-book enhanced with access to The Macroeconomic Simulator, Animated Analytical Diagrams, and self-assessment activities enabling students to recap content and investigate how models work at their own paceDigital formats and resourcesThis title is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats and is supported by online resources.The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with self-assessment activities, multi-media content, and links that offer extra learning support. For more information visit:www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks/This title is supported by a range of online resource for students including multiple-choice-questions with instant feedback, interactive Animated Analytical Diagrams, access to The Macroeconomic Simulator, web appendices which develop chapters 1, 4, 7, and 18, In addition, lecturers can access PowerPoint slides to accompany each chapter and answers to the problems and questions set in the book.