Inventive Billion Dollar Firms: A Faster Way to Grow

Outlines the issues involved in estimating how many highly successful, fast-growing new firms with average revenues rising to $1 billion need to be started each year to lift the economy-wide growth rate by 1 percentage point

Law and Policy in the Age of the Internet

Technological knowledge is of many different kinds, from experience-based know-how in the crafts to science-based knowledge in modern engineering. It is inherently oriented towards being useful in technological activities, such as manufacturing and engineering design. The purpose of this thesis is to highlight special characteristics of technological knowledge and how these affect how technology should be taught in school. It consists of an introduction, a summary in Swedish, and five papers: Paper I is about rules of thumb, which are simple instructions, used to guide actions toward a specific result, without need of advanced knowledge. One off the major advantages of rules of thumb is the ease with which they can be learnt. One of their major disadvantages is that they cannot easily be adjusted to new situations or conditions. Paper II describes how Gilbert Ryle's distinction between knowing how and knowing that is applicable in the technological domain. Knowing how and knowing that are commonly used together, but there are important differences between them which motivate why they should be regarded as different types: they are learnt in different ways, justified in different ways, and knowing that is susceptible to Gettier type problems which technological knowing how is not. Paper III is based on a survey about how Swedish technology teachers understand the concept of technological knowledge. Their opinions show an extensive variation, and they have no common terminology for describing the knowledge. Paper IV deals with non-scientific models that are commonly used by engineers, based on for example folk theories or obsolete science. These should be included in technology education if it is to resemble real technology. Different, and partly contradictory, epistemological frameworks must be used in different school subjects. This leads to major pedagogical challenges, but also to opportunities to clarify the differences between technology and the natural sciences and between models and reality. Paper V is about explanation, prediction, and the use of models in technology education. Explanations and models in technology differ from those in the natural sciences in that they have to include users' actions and intentions.QC 20140512</p

A Prudent Approach to Preventing "Predatory" Lending

Increasing attention has been paid in recent years to various abusive practices in the subprime lending market that have been collectively labeled as "predatory lending." Although the term itself has not been precisely defined, it has come generally to refer to mortgages extended under terms that are more onerous to borrowers than if they were more fully informed about the loans themselves and the alternative sources of finance that may be open to them. This report highlights the potential danger to the populations thought to be most victimized by predatory lending , minority and low-income individuals and families generally , of already enacted or proposed state and local ordinances or states that extend beyond federal law.

It's Time to Let Banks (Even Big Ones) Compete

One would have thought that by now all of the artificial barriers that prevent banks and other financial service firms from competing would have been removed. In the 1990s, Congress enacted two sweeping financial deregulation bills, the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Act of 1994 that finally treated banks like other firms in the economy and let them operate nationwide, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which permitted banks to affiliate with a broad range of other financial service firms. The 1994 Act contained one seemingly minor restriction, however: fearing that interstate authority would lead banks to engage excessively in mergers, Congress put caps on the share of domestic deposits that any banking organization could hold: 10 percent nationwide, 30 percent in any individual state (subject to modification by individual states). These numbers were chosen arbitrarily. The national cap in particular has no rationale in antitrust law or economics , but, at the time, they also seemed relatively innocuous, since no depository institution then had deposits that put it even close to either cap. That is no longer true today. Several banks have domestic deposits that are nearly at or close to the nationwide cap. This essay argues that now that the caps are binding, or nearly so, they are also counterproductive. They artificially encourage U.S. banking organizations to expand into non-banking businesses and abroad, while giving foreign banks an artificial advantage in bidding for U.S. banks. Furthermore, by limiting the ability of banks to compete and expand, the caps are detrimental to the interests of the consumers they presumably were designed to protect. Congress can correct this situation, ideally by removing both caps, and subject depository institution mergers to the same legal standards that have long applied to mergers among firms in other industries. As fallback measures, Congress could repeal just the national cap and/or could change the way the nationwide cap is calculated, to make it less inimical to the interest of consumers.

Balancing Costs and Benefits of New Privacy Mandates

Technological innovations that allow businesses unprecedented access to personal financial and medical records have prompted widespread calls for safeguards and increased security. In his working paper, "Balancing the Costs and Benefits of New Privacy Mandates,"Robert E. Litan, codirector of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, asserts that some safeguards may be necessary. But he cautions against over-regulation that could ultimately inconvenience consumers or inflate prices. In particular, Litan urges Congress to pass a limited, but comprehensive, federal statute that would require companies - whether doing business on or off the Internet - to notify consumers how information collected about them will be used and to afford them an opportunity to "opt out" of having their data shared with other parties for marketing purposes. Litan favors an even stricter regime for medical information, which is especially sensitive, and should not in his view be shared with affiliates or outsiders without consumers' explicit consent. Litan opposes, however, more far-reaching restrictions on the sharing of personal information, arguing that the costs would outweigh the benefits. A relatively unfettered flow of information allows investigators to root out fraud, increases competition that saves consumers money, and can result in people receiving product information tailored to their interests and financial status. Litan concludes that a limited notice and opt-out requirement would be in the self-interest of business, which would enhance customer trust, and thus would produce benefits in excess of the small costs involved.

Banks and real estate: regulating the unholy alliance

Real property ; Banks and banking ; Bank supervision

Relationships in Financial Services: Are Anti-Tying Restrictions Out of Date?

Since 1970, U.S. law has prohibited banks from tying their loans to other non-banking products, even if the bundle of services is offered at a discount to customers. Sometimes in the temporary zeal to enforce a particular law, policymakers forget to ask the basic question of whether the underlying law makes sense. In this case, it doesn't. Robert Litan argues that the time clearly has come for the flat prohibition against bank tying of loans to be replaced by the rules of the antitrust laws. Of course, the law requiring banks to book their loans at arms-length market terms should remain in force to prevent banks from under-pricing their loans in order to land other business. Too radical, you might say. Then, Litan recommendsinitially replace the tying prohibition with an antitrust rule only for the large, publicly held companies that already have issued or want to issue commercial paper, the market's best alternative to bank lending. Why shouldn't these borrowers get the same benefits that they can get when purchasing other goods and services? Also, viewDr. Litan's press releasefor this article.Technology and Industry, Regulatory Reform

Knowledge Economy Immigration: A Priority for U.S. Growth Policy

Offers economic and political arguments for facilitating immigration of highly educated, skilled workers as a way to support long-term knowledge-based economic growth. Proposes granting green cards to math and science graduates of qualified U.S. colleges