Experience Anu

Andrew Leigh is in conversation with Brian Schmidt on Andrew's new book with Joshua Gans, Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator. Is economic inequality the price we pay for innovation? The amazing technological advances of the last two decades-in such areas as artificial intelligence, genetics, and materials-have benefited society collectively and rewarded innovators handsomely: we get cool smartphones and technology moguls become billionaires. This contributes to a growing wealth gap; in the United States; the wealth controlled by the top 0.1 percent of households equals that of the bottom ninety percent. Is this the inevitable cost of an innovation-driven economy? Joshua Gans and Andrew Leigh make the case that pursuing innovation does not mean giving up on equality-precisely the opposite. In this book, they outline ways that society can become both more entrepreneurial and more egalitarian. All innovation entails uncertainty; there's no way to predict which