Against Intellectual Monopoly

Michele Boldrin is Joseph G. Hoyt Distinguished Professor of Economics in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St Louis. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London) and at FEDEA (Madrid). He is an Associate Editor of Econometrica, an Editor of the Review of Economic Dynamics, and an Advisory Editor of Macroeconomic Dynamics, published by Cambridge University Press. His research interests include growth, innovation, and business cycles; intergenerational and demographic issues; public policy; institutions; and social norms. He is the coauthor or coeditor of four books and has published in leading journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Review of Economic Dynamics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. David K. Levine is John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Economics in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St Louis. He is a coeditor of Econometrica, coeditor of NAJ Economics, President of the Society for Economic Dynamics, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau for Economic Research. Author with Drew Fudenberg of Learning in Games and editor of several conference volumes, his research interests include the study of intellectual property and endogenous growth in dynamic general equilibrium models; the endogenous formation of preferences, institutions, and social norms; and the application of game theory to experimental economics. Professor Levine has published in leading journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the American Political Science Review.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Creation under consumption; 3. Innovation under competition; 4. The evil of intellectual monopoly; 5. The devil in Disney; 6. How competition works; 7. Defenses of intellectual monopoly; 8. Does intellectual monopoly increase innovation?; 9. The pharmaceutical industry; 10. The bad, the good, and the ugly.

'One should bear a heavy burden of proof to enjoy a monopoly. Boldrin and Levine have dramatically increased that burden for those who enjoy intellectual monopoly. All economists, lawyers, judges, and policymakers should read this book.' W. A. Brock, University of Wisconsin, Madison