Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation

The Independent Institute’s Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation pursues research into entrepreneurship, the dynamic process of markets and technological innovation without regard to prevailing popular or political biases, trends or phobias.

The goal is to explore important areas that might otherwise be ignored, including questions normally considered “out-of-the-box” or controversial, but which might well be crucial to our understanding and aim to get at real answers and lasting solutions.

As a result, the Center aims to cut through the intellectual poverty, noise, and spin of special-interest-driven public policy in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Why have entrepreneurs flourished in certain locales and not everywhere else? What is there about the economic and political climate of some areas that has allowed entrepreneurs to thrive? Are the entrepreneurial roots of prosperity threatened today by the growth of the mega-state that seeks to control the tides of innovation and productivity? How can the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit be facilitated? How can this spirit of innovation and economic growth be expanded throughout the world in which so much of humanity live in appalling conditions of poverty, ignorance, disease, and war? What about such critical issues as unemployment, trade and protectionism, regulation and deregulation, insurance, property rights (including intellectual property), antitrust and monopoly, price controls, immigration, taxation, business organization, corporate welfare, consumer protection, telecommunications, corporate accountability and malfeasance?

The Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation boldly addresses these and other critically important questions in order to get beyond the stereotypes of Left and Right into the realm of innovative, bold ideas that are the key to a brighter future.

Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation Books

Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation News Releases

Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation People

Personnel

Lawrence J. McQuillan
Senior Fellow, Independent Institute

Senior Fellows

Bruce L. Benson
DeVoe Moore Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at Florida State University
Christopher J. Coyne
F.A. Harper Professor of Economics, George Mason University
Benjamin Powell
Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute and Director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University
William F. Shughart II
J. Fish Smith Professor in Public Choice at the Utah State University
Randy Simmons
Professor of Economics and Director, Institute of Political Economy, Utah State University
Alexander T. Tabarrok
Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University
Richard K. Vedder
Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Economics and Faculty Associate, Contemporary History Institute, Ohio University

Research Fellows

Burton A. Abrams
Director, MyGovCost.org; Professor of Economics, University of Delaware
Hovannes Abramyan
Research Fellow, Independent Institute
Dominick T. Armentano
Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Hartford
Patricia H. Born
Professor, Department of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate & Business Law, Florida State University
Tyler Cowen
General Director of the Mercatus Center and James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy, George Mason University
Kevin Dowd
Professor of Financial Risk Management, University of Nottingham
B. Delworth Gardner
Emeritus Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University
Peter Gordon
Professor of Policy, Planning and Development, University of Southern California
Randall G. Holcombe
DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics, Florida State University
Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics and the Social Enterprise, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Andrew N. Kleit
Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Pennsylvania State University
Stan J. Liebowitz
Ashbel Smith Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Analysis of Property Rights and Innovation, University of Texas at Dallas
Stephen E. Margolis
Professor of Economics, College of Management, North Carolina State University
Roger E. Meiners
Professor of Economics and Law, University of Texas at Arlington
Jeffrey A. Miron
Professor of Economics, Harvard University
Ernest C. Pasour, Jr.
Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University
Jeffrey J. Pompe
Nellie Cooke Sparrow Professor of Business and Professor of Economics and Trustee Research Scholar, Francis Marion University
Lawrence S. Powell
Whitbeck-Beyer Chair of Insurance and Financial Services, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Gabriel Roth
Research Fellow, The Independent Institute
Randal R. Rucker
Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University
Associate Professor of Economics, Duquesne University
Edward P. Stringham
Davis Professor of Economic Organizations and Innovation, Trinity College
Mark Thornton
Senior Fellow, Ludwig von Mises Institute
Bruce Yandle
Alumni Professor of Economics Emeritus, Clemson University
Ryan M. Yonk
Senior Research Faculty, American Institute for Economic Research

Advisors

Bruce L. Benson
DeVoe L. Moore Distinguished Research Professor of Economics, Florida State University

George Bittlingmayer

Wagnon Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Kansas
Peter J. Boettke
University Professor of Economics and Philosophy, George Mason University

Reuven Brenner

REPAP Chair in Economics, Faculty of Management, McGill University, Canada
Professor of Economics, University of Torino; Director, International Centre for Economic Research, Italy
Price V. Fishback
Frank and Clara Kramer Professor of Economics, University of Arizona
Peter Gordon
Professor of Economics and Professor, School of Policy, Planning and Development, University of Southern California
Peter J. Hill
George F. Bennett Professor Emeritus of Economics, Wheaton College
Randall G. Holcombe
DeVoe L. Moore Professor of Economics, Florida State University
Daniel B. Klein
Professor of Economics, George Mason University
Peter G. Klein
Professor, Division of Applied Social Sciences and Associate Director, Contracting and Organizations Research Institute, University of Missouri
Dean, School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, Singapore
Robert A. Lawson
Jerome M. Fullinwider Chair in Economic Freedom, O'Neal Center for Global Markets and Freedom, Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University
Stan J. Liebowitz
Director, Center for the Analysis of Property Rights and Innovation, and Professor of Managerial Economics, University of Texas at Dallas
Stephen E. Margolis
Professor of Economics, North Carolina State University
Roger E. Meiners
Goolsby Distinguished Professor of Economics and Law, University of Texas, Arlington
Michael C. Munger
Professor of Political Science, Duke University; Co-Editor, The Independent Review
Benjamin Powell
Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University
Randy Simmons
Professor of Economics and Director, Institute of Political Economy, Utah State University
Russell S. Sobel
Visiting Scholar in Entrepreneurship, School of Business Administration, The Citadel
Lawrence H. White
Professor of Economics, George Mason University

Adjunct Fellows

In Memoriam

Richard L. Stroup
Adjunct Professor of Economics, North Carolina State University; Professor of Economics, Montana State University
Richard H. Timberlake, Jr.
Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Georgia

Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation Contact

Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation
The Independent Institute
100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428
510-632-1366 Phone
510-568-6040 Fax

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, the Independent Institute
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Research Fellow and Center Director, the Independent Institute
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About the Independent Institute Centers

Each center is tasked with assessing, refining, and proposing innovative solutions to pressing social and economic challenges. Our programs focus on three core components: rigorous scholarly research, insightful publications, and the strategic dissemination of findings to opinion leaders and the public through conferences and media initiatives.

By fostering evidence-based solutions, our centers encourage informed discussions that can be scrutinized not just by experts, but also by media influencers, business leaders, religious organizations, engaged citizens, and policymakers. Our goal is to promote rational, objective dialogue that sheds light on key issues and shifts public discourse away from interest-group politics.