Funding models and progress

I went in to my study of progress with certain priors. I expected to find that technological and economic development depended (if perhaps in complex ways) on science, rule of law, legal institutions such as corporations and intellectual property, and certain cultural and philosophic ideas. What I might not have thought to list back then, however, was the importance of funding models and mechanisms.

https://rootsofprogress.org/funding-models-and-progress

Funding models for science and invention

In my last post I wrote about the importance of funding models to progress. Here I want to survey the major types of funding models particularly for science and invention. This list is probably incomplete, but it’s a starting point.

https://rootsofprogress.org/funding-models-for-science-and-innovation

Questions to ask about funding models

To compare funding models for science and technology, and to understand their pros and cons, it will help to look at them along multiple axes. Here’s a list of questions it can be useful to ask about each model, system, or program, loosely grouped in a few categories…

https://rootsofprogress.org/questions-to-ask-about-funding-models

Organizational metabolism and the for-profit advantage

Why anything that can be for-profit, should be

In a recent post I surveyed different types of funding models, including nonprofit models such as universities or private foundations, and for-profit models such as startups. Although we need both models, I believe that for-profit models are underrated today. In what follows I will explain some fundamental advantages of the for-profit model.

To understand these advantages and why they are essential, we have to understand the incentives and feedback loops that exist within the for-profit and nonprofit worlds. One framework I use to think about this is a concept I call organizational metabolism.

https://rootsofprogress.org/organizational-metabolism-and-the-for-profit-advantage