“The basic hypothesis is that, while the total supply of entrepreneurs varies among societies, the productive contribution of the society's entrepreneurial activities varies much more because of their allocation between productive activities such as innovation and largely unproductive activities such as rent seeking or organized crime. This allocation is heavily influenced by the relative payoffs society offers to such activities. This implies that policy can influence the allocation of entrepreneurship more effectively than it can influence its supply. Historical evidence from ancient Rome, early China, and the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe is used to investigate the hypotheses.”

Source: "Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive," 1996, p. 3

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The basic hypothesis is that, while the total supply of entrepreneurs varies among societies, the productive contributi…" by William J. Baumol?
William J. Baumol photo
William J. Baumol 9
American economist 1922–2017

Related quotes

David Easton photo

“Political science is the study of the authoritative allocation of values for a society.”

David Easton (1917–2014) Canadian academic

The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science (1953)

Karl Marx photo

“Technology discloses the active relation of man towards nature, as well as the direct process of production of his very life, and thereby the process of production of his basic societal relations, of his own mentality, and his images of society, too.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Vol. I, Ch. 13: "Machinery and Big Industry".
(Buch I) (1867)

Richard Stallman photo
Theodore Schultz photo

“There are comparatively few significant inefficiencies in the allocation of the factors of production in traditional agriculture.”

Theodore Schultz (1902–1998) American economist

Source: "Transforming traditional agriculture," 1964, p. 37

Carl von Clausewitz photo
Milton Friedman photo

“The basic problem of social organization is how to co-ordinate the economic activities of large numbers of people.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Source: (1962), Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12

Warren Buffett photo

“I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

To Barack Obama, as quoted in The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006), Ch. 5
Context: I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into. If I’d been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless. I can’t run very fast. I’m not particularly strong. I’d probably end up as some wild animal’s dinner.
But I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society values my talent, and gave me a good education to develop that talent, and set up the laws and the financial system to let me do what I love doing — and make a lot of money doing it. The least I can do is help pay for all that.

N. Gregory Mankiw photo

Related topics