The case against idea monopolisation

Patents and copyrights, a.k.a the process of monopolising ideas.

A gripping new paper from Michele Boldrin and David Levine at the St. Louis Fed argues there are strong economic grounds to abolish patents, because “there is no empirical evidence that they serve to increase innovation and productivity, unless the latter is identified with the number of patents awarded– which, as evidence shows, has no correlation with measured productivity.”