Information, appropriability, and the generation of innovative knowledge four decades after Arrow and Nelson: an introduction

Abstract

This introduction sets in context the works that follow, which are meant to take stock of the theoretical advances and also historical changes since the seminal Arrow (1962) and Nelson (1959). First, we summarize some of the original Arrow–Nelson insights. Second, we map the subsequent developments shorthanded as the “Stanford-Yale-Sussex synthesis.” A particularly controversial issue concerns the relationships between notional opportunities of innovation, private appropriability of return from innovating, and realized rates of innovation: hence, third, we briefly offer a framework for its discussion, in general and with reference to the private appropriation of scientific knowledge.