In a previous post, I noted that Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz had advocated replacing the patent system with a system for "awarding prizes"—presumably taxpayer funded—for innovations and inventions. In Scrooge and intellectual property rights, Stiglitz endorses a "medical prize fund" that "would give large rewards for cures or vaccines for diseases," which "prizes could be funded by governments in advanced industrial countries." Two cheers for capitalism! Or is that the other one?
Re: Patents and Utilitarian Thinking Redux: Stiglitz on using Prizes to Stimulate Innovation
