Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2023-2024

Conference on the Economics of Innovation in Memory of Zvi Griliches : Opening

Colloque en anglais organisé par Philippe Aghion, Lee Branstetter et Adam Jaffe.

Intervenant(s)

Thomas Römer

Professeur et administrateur du Collège de France

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Leveling the Political Playing Field: Can Democracy Deliver on its Promise of Equal Political Opportunity?

Conférence - Karl-Oskar Lindgren : Breaking the Cycle: Education's Role in Reducing Political Inequality

Intervenant(s)

Karl-Oskar Lindgren

Professeur de sciences politiques, université d'Uppsala

Résumé

In a famous statement, Alexis de Tocqueville once highlighted the love for equality as a defining characteristic of democratic nations. Yet, despite this observation, inequality of political opportunity remains widespread in most developed democracies. Individuals born into economically or politically marginalized families are considerably less likely to grow up to become politically active citizens than their more fortunate peers. Over the years, many suggestions have been made on how to break this chain of political inequality. This lecture will focus on one widely proposed solution: improved educational opportunities.

The view of education as the 'great equalizer' of political influence has a long history in liberal democratic thought. However, in recent decades, this belief in the redeeming effects of education has been questioned by scholars who argue that the strong correlation between education and political participation observed in most democracies is spurious rather than causal.

In this lecture, we will revisit this scholarly debate using individual-level data from three large-scale educational reforms that took place in Sweden during the 20th century. By doing so, we find that carefully designed educational reforms can provide an effective means to reduce the political opportunity gaps that are currently threatening democratic legitimacy in many countries.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Leveling the Political Playing Field: Can Democracy Deliver on its Promise of Equal Political Opportunity?

Conférence - Karl-Oskar Lindgren : Perpetuity of the Past: How Political Inequality is Transmitted Across Generations

Intervenant(s)

Karl-Oskar Lindgren

Professeur de sciences politiques, université d'Uppsala

Résumé

The notion that every citizen should have equal opportunities to influence political decisions is a fundamental principle in liberal democratic thought. However, decades of political science research have consistently shown that individuals with politically active parents are more inclined to become politically engaged themselves. In this lecture, we will explore various potential explanations for the robust intergenerational correlations in political participation observed in many modern democracies. These explanations encompass social, economic, and biological factors.

Utilizing detailed data from Swedish administrative registers, including up to four consecutive generations, we will examine how levels of political participation are transferred between generations. The analysis reveals that the intergenerational transmission of political participation can span multiple generations and has both social and genetic roots.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Colloque - Entrepreneurship, Risk, Talent and Innovation : The Welfare Cost of Ignoring the Beta

Intervenant(s)

David Stromberg, Stockholm University

Entrepreneurs are the chief source of innovation in modern economies, as illustrated by iconic figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna and several subsequent biotech companies. Success at this level hinges on idiosyncratic characteristics of the potential entrepreneur such as talent, inventiveness, and the propensity to take risks, on social origins, parental education, and family influence more generally, and on the environment: in particular the extent to which society favors risk-taking by forgiving early failure while rewarding talent and long-term success.

The semantics of talent have spread at an accelerated rate in the world of work and in human resources management since the end of the 1990s. Today, we no longer talk about personnel management or "human resources" so much as talent management. The concept has been diluted as it has spread across the entire professional skills space, but its core meaning has never been stable.

What exactly are we talking about when we speak of talent? The question is ceaselessly asked in all the scientific and professional publications devoted to talent management. It has been both a persistent enigma and a resource for plasticity in redefining the qualities required to recruit staff, to manage their careers and to find a balance in the competition for the best talent, since poaching by a competitor threatens each employer's investment in recruitment and career development. It is too often forgotten that the notion of talent, which was originally coined metaphorically in the "parable of the talents" in Matthew's gospel, can be read as a praise of risk-taking, which is rewarded, and a criticism of risk-aversion, which is discredited.

This conference will gather economists and sociologists working on talent, risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with the goal of improving our understanding of the underpinnings of innovative entrepreneurship and of how entrepreneurship can be favored by appropriate institutions and policies.

Isaiah Berlin once suggested a division of the world between hedgehogs and foxes, where foxes are individuals that engage in multiple projects simultaneously to pool risks, whereas hedgehogs put all their eggs into one basket and are ready to take maximum risk. One view of entrepreneurship is as hedgehogs who pursue a single innovation project, no matter how risky this project might be. This conference will analyze how social norms, the education system, competition, tax incentives and talent reward, and the financial system affect individuals' choice to be hedgehogs rather than foxes and selects the best talents into becoming innovative entrepreneurs.

Colloque coorganisé par les Prs Philippe Aghion et Pierre-Michel Menger avec le soutien de LVMH et de la Fondation du Collège de France.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Colloque - Entrepreneurship, Risk, Talent and Innovation : Does Chinese Research Hinge on US Coauthors?

Intervenant(s)

David Stromberg, Stockholm University

Entrepreneurs are the chief source of innovation in modern economies, as illustrated by iconic figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna and several subsequent biotech companies. Success at this level hinges on idiosyncratic characteristics of the potential entrepreneur such as talent, inventiveness, and the propensity to take risks, on social origins, parental education, and family influence more generally, and on the environment: in particular the extent to which society favors risk-taking by forgiving early failure while rewarding talent and long-term success.

The semantics of talent have spread at an accelerated rate in the world of work and in human resources management since the end of the 1990s. Today, we no longer talk about personnel management or "human resources" so much as talent management. The concept has been diluted as it has spread across the entire professional skills space, but its core meaning has never been stable.

What exactly are we talking about when we speak of talent? The question is ceaselessly asked in all the scientific and professional publications devoted to talent management. It has been both a persistent enigma and a resource for plasticity in redefining the qualities required to recruit staff, to manage their careers and to find a balance in the competition for the best talent, since poaching by a competitor threatens each employer's investment in recruitment and career development. It is too often forgotten that the notion of talent, which was originally coined metaphorically in the "parable of the talents" in Matthew's gospel, can be read as a praise of risk-taking, which is rewarded, and a criticism of risk-aversion, which is discredited.

This conference will gather economists and sociologists working on talent, risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with the goal of improving our understanding of the underpinnings of innovative entrepreneurship and of how entrepreneurship can be favored by appropriate institutions and policies.

Isaiah Berlin once suggested a division of the world between hedgehogs and foxes, where foxes are individuals that engage in multiple projects simultaneously to pool risks, whereas hedgehogs put all their eggs into one basket and are ready to take maximum risk. One view of entrepreneurship is as hedgehogs who pursue a single innovation project, no matter how risky this project might be. This conference will analyze how social norms, the education system, competition, tax incentives and talent reward, and the financial system affect individuals' choice to be hedgehogs rather than foxes and selects the best talents into becoming innovative entrepreneurs.

Colloque coorganisé par les Prs Philippe Aghion et Pierre-Michel Menger avec le soutien de LVMH et de la Fondation du Collège de France.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Colloque - Entrepreneurship, Risk, Talent and Innovation : Who Stands on the Shoulders of Chinese (Scientific) Giants? Evidence from Chemistry

Intervenant(s)

Pierre Azoulay, MIT et NBER

Entrepreneurs are the chief source of innovation in modern economies, as illustrated by iconic figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna and several subsequent biotech companies. Success at this level hinges on idiosyncratic characteristics of the potential entrepreneur such as talent, inventiveness, and the propensity to take risks, on social origins, parental education, and family influence more generally, and on the environment: in particular the extent to which society favors risk-taking by forgiving early failure while rewarding talent and long-term success.

The semantics of talent have spread at an accelerated rate in the world of work and in human resources management since the end of the 1990s. Today, we no longer talk about personnel management or "human resources" so much as talent management. The concept has been diluted as it has spread across the entire professional skills space, but its core meaning has never been stable.

What exactly are we talking about when we speak of talent? The question is ceaselessly asked in all the scientific and professional publications devoted to talent management. It has been both a persistent enigma and a resource for plasticity in redefining the qualities required to recruit staff, to manage their careers and to find a balance in the competition for the best talent, since poaching by a competitor threatens each employer's investment in recruitment and career development. It is too often forgotten that the notion of talent, which was originally coined metaphorically in the "parable of the talents" in Matthew's gospel, can be read as a praise of risk-taking, which is rewarded, and a criticism of risk-aversion, which is discredited.

This conference will gather economists and sociologists working on talent, risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with the goal of improving our understanding of the underpinnings of innovative entrepreneurship and of how entrepreneurship can be favored by appropriate institutions and policies.

Isaiah Berlin once suggested a division of the world between hedgehogs and foxes, where foxes are individuals that engage in multiple projects simultaneously to pool risks, whereas hedgehogs put all their eggs into one basket and are ready to take maximum risk. One view of entrepreneurship is as hedgehogs who pursue a single innovation project, no matter how risky this project might be. This conference will analyze how social norms, the education system, competition, tax incentives and talent reward, and the financial system affect individuals' choice to be hedgehogs rather than foxes and selects the best talents into becoming innovative entrepreneurs.

Colloque coorganisé par les Prs Philippe Aghion et Pierre-Michel Menger avec le soutien de LVMH et de la Fondation du Collège de France.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Colloque - Entrepreneurship, Risk, Talent and Innovation : Recipes and Economic Growth: a Combinatorial March Down an Exponential Trail

Intervenant(s)

Chad Jones, Stanford University

Entrepreneurs are the chief source of innovation in modern economies, as illustrated by iconic figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna and several subsequent biotech companies. Success at this level hinges on idiosyncratic characteristics of the potential entrepreneur such as talent, inventiveness, and the propensity to take risks, on social origins, parental education, and family influence more generally, and on the environment: in particular the extent to which society favors risk-taking by forgiving early failure while rewarding talent and long-term success.

The semantics of talent have spread at an accelerated rate in the world of work and in human resources management since the end of the 1990s. Today, we no longer talk about personnel management or "human resources" so much as talent management. The concept has been diluted as it has spread across the entire professional skills space, but its core meaning has never been stable.

What exactly are we talking about when we speak of talent? The question is ceaselessly asked in all the scientific and professional publications devoted to talent management. It has been both a persistent enigma and a resource for plasticity in redefining the qualities required to recruit staff, to manage their careers and to find a balance in the competition for the best talent, since poaching by a competitor threatens each employer's investment in recruitment and career development. It is too often forgotten that the notion of talent, which was originally coined metaphorically in the "parable of the talents" in Matthew's gospel, can be read as a praise of risk-taking, which is rewarded, and a criticism of risk-aversion, which is discredited.

This conference will gather economists and sociologists working on talent, risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with the goal of improving our understanding of the underpinnings of innovative entrepreneurship and of how entrepreneurship can be favored by appropriate institutions and policies.

Isaiah Berlin once suggested a division of the world between hedgehogs and foxes, where foxes are individuals that engage in multiple projects simultaneously to pool risks, whereas hedgehogs put all their eggs into one basket and are ready to take maximum risk. One view of entrepreneurship is as hedgehogs who pursue a single innovation project, no matter how risky this project might be. This conference will analyze how social norms, the education system, competition, tax incentives and talent reward, and the financial system affect individuals' choice to be hedgehogs rather than foxes and selects the best talents into becoming innovative entrepreneurs.

Colloque coorganisé par les Prs Philippe Aghion et Pierre-Michel Menger avec le soutien de LVMH et de la Fondation du Collège de France.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Colloque - Entrepreneurship, Risk, Talent and Innovation : From Public to Private: Magnitude and Channels of R&D Spillovers

Intervenant(s)

Antonin Bergeaud, HEC Paris

Entrepreneurs are the chief source of innovation in modern economies, as illustrated by iconic figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna and several subsequent biotech companies. Success at this level hinges on idiosyncratic characteristics of the potential entrepreneur such as talent, inventiveness, and the propensity to take risks, on social origins, parental education, and family influence more generally, and on the environment: in particular the extent to which society favors risk-taking by forgiving early failure while rewarding talent and long-term success.

The semantics of talent have spread at an accelerated rate in the world of work and in human resources management since the end of the 1990s. Today, we no longer talk about personnel management or "human resources" so much as talent management. The concept has been diluted as it has spread across the entire professional skills space, but its core meaning has never been stable.

What exactly are we talking about when we speak of talent? The question is ceaselessly asked in all the scientific and professional publications devoted to talent management. It has been both a persistent enigma and a resource for plasticity in redefining the qualities required to recruit staff, to manage their careers and to find a balance in the competition for the best talent, since poaching by a competitor threatens each employer's investment in recruitment and career development. It is too often forgotten that the notion of talent, which was originally coined metaphorically in the "parable of the talents" in Matthew's gospel, can be read as a praise of risk-taking, which is rewarded, and a criticism of risk-aversion, which is discredited.

This conference will gather economists and sociologists working on talent, risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with the goal of improving our understanding of the underpinnings of innovative entrepreneurship and of how entrepreneurship can be favored by appropriate institutions and policies.

Isaiah Berlin once suggested a division of the world between hedgehogs and foxes, where foxes are individuals that engage in multiple projects simultaneously to pool risks, whereas hedgehogs put all their eggs into one basket and are ready to take maximum risk. One view of entrepreneurship is as hedgehogs who pursue a single innovation project, no matter how risky this project might be. This conference will analyze how social norms, the education system, competition, tax incentives and talent reward, and the financial system affect individuals' choice to be hedgehogs rather than foxes and selects the best talents into becoming innovative entrepreneurs.

Colloque coorganisé par les Prs Philippe Aghion et Pierre-Michel Menger avec le soutien de LVMH et de la Fondation du Collège de France.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Colloque - Entrepreneurship, Risk, Talent and Innovation : Bypassing the Box-Office? Performance, Risk and Career Inequalities among Women and Men Film Directors in France

Intervenant(s)

Pierre-Michel Menger, Professeur du Collège de France

Simon Bittmann, CNRS

Entrepreneurs are the chief source of innovation in modern economies, as illustrated by iconic figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna and several subsequent biotech companies. Success at this level hinges on idiosyncratic characteristics of the potential entrepreneur such as talent, inventiveness, and the propensity to take risks, on social origins, parental education, and family influence more generally, and on the environment: in particular the extent to which society favors risk-taking by forgiving early failure while rewarding talent and long-term success.

The semantics of talent have spread at an accelerated rate in the world of work and in human resources management since the end of the 1990s. Today, we no longer talk about personnel management or "human resources" so much as talent management. The concept has been diluted as it has spread across the entire professional skills space, but its core meaning has never been stable.

What exactly are we talking about when we speak of talent? The question is ceaselessly asked in all the scientific and professional publications devoted to talent management. It has been both a persistent enigma and a resource for plasticity in redefining the qualities required to recruit staff, to manage their careers and to find a balance in the competition for the best talent, since poaching by a competitor threatens each employer's investment in recruitment and career development. It is too often forgotten that the notion of talent, which was originally coined metaphorically in the "parable of the talents" in Matthew's gospel, can be read as a praise of risk-taking, which is rewarded, and a criticism of risk-aversion, which is discredited.

This conference will gather economists and sociologists working on talent, risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with the goal of improving our understanding of the underpinnings of innovative entrepreneurship and of how entrepreneurship can be favored by appropriate institutions and policies.

Isaiah Berlin once suggested a division of the world between hedgehogs and foxes, where foxes are individuals that engage in multiple projects simultaneously to pool risks, whereas hedgehogs put all their eggs into one basket and are ready to take maximum risk. One view of entrepreneurship is as hedgehogs who pursue a single innovation project, no matter how risky this project might be. This conference will analyze how social norms, the education system, competition, tax incentives and talent reward, and the financial system affect individuals' choice to be hedgehogs rather than foxes and selects the best talents into becoming innovative entrepreneurs.

Colloque coorganisé par les Prs Philippe Aghion et Pierre-Michel Menger avec le soutien de LVMH et de la Fondation du Collège de France.

Philippe Aghion

Collège de France

Économie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance

Année 2022-2023

Colloque - Entrepreneurship, Risk, Talent and Innovation : Great Powers and the Global Landscape of Entrepreneurship

Intervenant(s)

Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School

Entrepreneurs are the chief source of innovation in modern economies, as illustrated by iconic figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna and several subsequent biotech companies. Success at this level hinges on idiosyncratic characteristics of the potential entrepreneur such as talent, inventiveness, and the propensity to take risks, on social origins, parental education, and family influence more generally, and on the environment: in particular the extent to which society favors risk-taking by forgiving early failure while rewarding talent and long-term success.

The semantics of talent have spread at an accelerated rate in the world of work and in human resources management since the end of the 1990s. Today, we no longer talk about personnel management or "human resources" so much as talent management. The concept has been diluted as it has spread across the entire professional skills space, but its core meaning has never been stable.

What exactly are we talking about when we speak of talent? The question is ceaselessly asked in all the scientific and professional publications devoted to talent management. It has been both a persistent enigma and a resource for plasticity in redefining the qualities required to recruit staff, to manage their careers and to find a balance in the competition for the best talent, since poaching by a competitor threatens each employer's investment in recruitment and career development. It is too often forgotten that the notion of talent, which was originally coined metaphorically in the "parable of the talents" in Matthew's gospel, can be read as a praise of risk-taking, which is rewarded, and a criticism of risk-aversion, which is discredited.

This conference will gather economists and sociologists working on talent, risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation, with the goal of improving our understanding of the underpinnings of innovative entrepreneurship and of how entrepreneurship can be favored by appropriate institutions and policies.

Isaiah Berlin once suggested a division of the world between hedgehogs and foxes, where foxes are individuals that engage in multiple projects simultaneously to pool risks, whereas hedgehogs put all their eggs into one basket and are ready to take maximum risk. One view of entrepreneurship is as hedgehogs who pursue a single innovation project, no matter how risky this project might be. This conference will analyze how social norms, the education system, competition, tax incentives and talent reward, and the financial system affect individuals' choice to be hedgehogs rather than foxes and selects the best talents into becoming innovative entrepreneurs.

Colloque coorganisé par les Prs Philippe Aghion et Pierre-Michel Menger avec le soutien de LVMH et de la Fondation du Collège de France.