Space, the Final Economic Frontier

Matthew C. Weinzierl

Abstract

After decades of centralized control of economic activity in space, NASA and U.S. policymakers have begun to cede the direction of human activities in space to commercial companies. NASA garnered more than 0.7% of GDP in the mid-1960s but is only around 0.1% of GDP today. Meanwhile, space has become big business, with $300 billion in annual revenue. The shift from public to private priorities in space is especially significant because a widely shared goal among commercial space's leaders is the achievement of a large-scale, mainly self-sufficient, developed space economy. Jeff Bezos has stated that the mission of his firm Blue Origin is "millions of people living and working in space." Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, has laid out plans to build a city of a million people on Mars within the next century. Both Neil deGrasse Tyson and Peter Diamandis have been given credit for stating that Earth's first trillionaire will be an asteroid miner. Such visions are clearly not going to become reality in the near future. But detailed roadmaps to them are being produced, and recent progress in the required technologies has been dramatic. If such space-economy visions are even partially realized, the implications for society will be enormous. Though economists should treat the prospect of a developed space economy with healthy skepticism, it would be irresponsible to treat it as science fiction. In this article, I provide an analytical framework—based on classic economic analysis of the role of government in market economies—for understanding and managing the development of the space economy.

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Citation:

Weinzierl, Matthew C. "Space, the Final Economic Frontier." Journal of Economic Perspectives 32, no. 2 (Spring 2018): 173–192.

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Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2014 (Revised October 2019)

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Taxing corporations is popular, but why? Corporations do not bear the burden of taxes, people do, and the incidence of the corporate income tax burden is likely to be far different from what many of its supporters assume.
Instructors may also obtain a Teaching Note, written by this case's author, that provides suggestions for using this case effectively in the classroom.

Keywords: Economic versus statutory incidence; Basics of corporate taxation; Business Ventures; Taxation; Profit;

Citation:
Weinzierl, Matthew, Katrina Flanagan, and Michael Cianellli. "Should Corporate Profits Be Taxed? (A)." Harvard Business School Case 714-033, February 2014. (Revised October 2019.) View Details

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Supplement | HBS Case Collection | October 2019

Should Corporate Profits Be Taxed? (B)

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Weinzierl, Matthew C., and Michael Cianelli. "Should Corporate Profits Be Taxed? (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 720-015, October 2019. View Details

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Equality of Opportunity and Outcome in the U.S.

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Equality of opportunity is endorsed universally even though, or more likely because, it can mean such different things to different people. What definition of equality of opportunity ought to figure into policy decisions? How close, or far, is the United States from providing equal opportunity?
Instructors may also obtain a Teaching Note, written by this case's author, that provides suggestions for using this case effectively in the classroom.

Keywords: equality of opportunity; justice; Opportunities; Equality and Inequality; Policy; United States;

Citation:
Weinzierl, Matthew, and Alastair Su. "Equality of Opportunity and Outcome in the U.S." Harvard Business School Case 715-028, February 2015. (Revised August 2019.) View Details

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Space, the Final Economic Frontier

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