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  • April 2017
  • Article
  • Explorations in Economic History

Prizes, Patents and the Search for Longitude

By: M. Diane Burton and Tom Nicholas
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Abstract

The 1714 Longitude Act created the Board of Longitude to administer a large monetary prize and progress payments for the precise determination of a ship’s longitude. However, the prize did not prohibit patenting. We use a new dataset of marine chronometer inventors to show that the propensity to patent was high. We argue that while the prize spurred entry by key inventors, and progress payments facilitated research investment in an area of significant social value, patents promoted disclosure. Our findings highlight the importance of complementarities between prize and patent-based incentives in the design of innovation inducement contests.

Keywords

Prizes; Innovation; Patents; Innovation and Invention; Motivation and Incentives

Citation

Burton, M. Diane, and Tom Nicholas. "Prizes, Patents and the Search for Longitude." Explorations in Economic History 64 (April 2017): 21–36.
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About The Author

Tom Nicholas

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

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  • Barbarians at the Gate or Turnaround Gurus? Private Equity and the Rise of the LBO By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko
  • Status and Mortality: Is There a Whitehall Effect in the United States? By: Tom Nicholas
  • When Institutions Fail: HIV/AIDS in the 1980s By: Tom Nicholas and Christian Godwin
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