Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform

513 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2011 Last revised: 20 Feb 2014

See all articles by Robert E. Litan

Robert E. Litan

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - Council on Foreign Relations- Washington D.C.

Yochai Benkler

Harvard University

Henry N. Butler

George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School

John Henry Clippinger

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Human Dynamics Group

Bob Cook-Deegan

Arizona State University (ASU) - School for the Future of Innovation in Society

Robert D. Cooter

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law

Aaron S. Edlin

University of California at Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Nicole Stelle Garnett

Notre Dame Law School

Ronald J. Gilson

Stanford Law School; Columbia Law School; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); Stanford Law School

Oliver R. Goodenough

Vermont Law School

Gillian K. Hadfield

University of Toronto; Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence; OpenAI; Center for Human-Compatible AI

Mark A. Lemley

Stanford Law School

Frank Partnoy

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law

George L. Priest

Yale University - Law School

Larry E. Ribstein

University of Illinois College of Law (deceased); PERC - Property and Environment Research Center

Charles Sabel

Columbia University - Columbia Law School

Peter H. Schuck

Yale University - Law School

Hal S. Scott

Harvard Law School

Robert E. Scott

Columbia University - Law School

Alex Stein

Israel Supreme Court

Victoria Stodden

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Graduate School of Library and Information Science

John E. Tyler

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; Columbia University

Alan D. Viard

American Enterprise Institute

Benjamin Wittes

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: February 8, 2011

Abstract

The United States economy is struggling to recover from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. After several huge doses of conventional macroeconomic stimulus - deficit-spending and monetary stimulus - policymakers are understandably eager to find innovative no-cost ways of sustaining growth both in the short and long runs.

In response to this challenge, the Kauffman Foundation convened a number of America’s leading legal scholars and social scientists during the summer of 2010 to present and discuss their ideas for changing legal rules and policies to promote innovation and accelerate U.S. economic growth. This meeting led to the publication of Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform, a comprehensive and groundbreaking volume of essays prescribing a new set of growth-promoting policies for policymakers, legal scholars, economists, and business men and women.

Some of the top Rules include: • Reforming U.S. immigration laws so that more high-skilled immigrants can launch businesses in the United States. • Improving university technology licensing practices so university-generated innovation is more quickly and efficiently commercialized. • Moving away from taxes on income that penalize risk-taking, innovation, and employment while shifting toward a more consumption-based tax system that encourages saving that funds investment. In addition, the research tax credit should be redesigned and made permanent. • Overhauling local zoning rules to facilitate the formation of innovative companies. • Urging judges to take a more expansive view of flexible business contracts that are increasingly used by innovative firms. • Urging antitrust enforcers and courts to define markets more in global terms to reflect contemporary realities, resist antitrust enforcement from countries with less sound antitrust regimes, and prohibit industry trade protection and subsidies. • Reforming the intellectual property system to allow for a post-grant opposition process and address the large patent application backlog by allowing applicants to pay for more rapid patent reviews. • Authorizing corporate entities to form digitally and use software as a means for setting out agreements and bylaws governing corporate activities.

The collective essays in the book propose a new way of thinking about the legal system that should be of interest to policymakers and academic scholars alike. Moreover, the ideas presented here, if embodied in law, would augment a sustained increase in U.S. economic growth, improving living standards for U.S. residents and for many in the rest of the world.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, policy, growth, rules, innovation, immigration, intellectual property, ip, university, business, federal, national, patent

Suggested Citation

Litan, Robert E. and Benkler, Yochai and Butler, Henry N. and Clippinger, John Henry and Cook-Deegan, Robert M and Cooter, Robert D. and Edlin, Aaron S. and Garnett, Nicole Stelle and Gilson, Ronald J. and Goodenough, Oliver R. and Hadfield, Gillian K. and Lemley, Mark A. and Partnoy, Frank and Priest, George L. and Ribstein, Larry Edward and Sabel, Charles Frederick and Schuck, Peter H. and Scott, Hal S. and Scott, Robert E. and Stein, Alex and Stodden, Victoria and Tyler, John E. and Viard, Alan D. and Wittes, Benjamin, Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform (February 8, 2011). Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 426, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 410, UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper No. 1757982, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1757982 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1757982

Robert E. Litan (Contact Author)

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - Council on Foreign Relations- Washington D.C. ( email )

1777 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
United States

Yochai Benkler

Harvard University ( email )

1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Henry N. Butler

George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School ( email )

3301 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
United States
703-993-8644 (Phone)

John Henry Clippinger

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Human Dynamics Group ( email )

77 Mass. Ave
E14/E15
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
United States

Robert M Cook-Deegan

Arizona State University (ASU) - School for the Future of Innovation in Society ( email )

PO Box 875603
Tempe, AZ 85287-560
United States

Robert D. Cooter

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
United States
510-642-0503 (Phone)
510-642-3767 (Fax)

Aaron S. Edlin

University of California at Berkeley ( email )

Dept of Economics 549 Evans Hall #3880
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States
510-642-4719 (Phone)
510-643-0413 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
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Nicole Stelle Garnett

Notre Dame Law School ( email )

P.O. Box 780
Notre Dame, IN 46556
United States
574-631-3091 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.nd.edu/faculty/facultypages/garnettn.html

Ronald J. Gilson

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States
650-723-0614 (Phone)
650-725-0253 (Fax)

Columbia Law School ( email )

435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10025
United States
212-854-1655 (Phone)
212-854-7946 (Fax)

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States
650-723-0614 (Phone)
650-725-0253 (Fax)

Oliver R. Goodenough

Vermont Law School ( email )

164 Chelsea Street
P.O. Box 96
South Royalton, VT 05068
United States
802 831 1231 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.vermontlaw.edu/Our_Faculty/Faculty_Directory/Oliver_R_Goodenough.htm

Gillian K. Hadfield

University of Toronto ( email )

78 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C5
Canada
4169784214 (Phone)

Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence ( email )

OpenAI ( email )

Center for Human-Compatible AI ( email )

310 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

Mark A. Lemley

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States

Frank Partnoy

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law ( email )

215 Boalt Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
United States

George L. Priest

Yale University - Law School ( email )

P.O. Box 208215
New Haven, CT 06520-8215
United States

Larry Edward Ribstein

University of Illinois College of Law (deceased)

PERC - Property and Environment Research Center

2048 Analysis Drive
Suite A
Bozeman, MT 59718
United States

Charles Frederick Sabel

Columbia University - Columbia Law School ( email )

435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10025
United States
212-854-2618 (Phone)
212-854-7946 (Fax)

Peter H. Schuck

Yale University - Law School ( email )

P.O. Box 208215
New Haven, CT 06520-8215
United States

Hal S. Scott

Harvard Law School ( email )

1557 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
617-495-4590 (Phone)
617-495-9593 (Fax)

Robert E. Scott

Columbia University - Law School ( email )

435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10025
United States
212-854-0072 (Phone)

Alex Stein

Israel Supreme Court ( email )

Sha'arey Mishpat Street
Jerusalem
Israel

Victoria Stodden

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Graduate School of Library and Information Science ( email )

United States

John E. Tyler

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation ( email )

4801 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO 64110-2046
United States
816-932-1293 (Phone)

Columbia University ( email )

3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
United States

Alan D. Viard

American Enterprise Institute ( email )

1150 17th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
United States
(202) 419-5202 (Phone)
(202) 862-7177 (Fax)

Benjamin Wittes

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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