We all know the proverb “Necessity is the mother of invention.” This proverb is overly simplistic, but it gets at something true. One place you can see this really clearly is in global crises, which vividly illustrate the linkage between need and innovation, without the need for any fancy statistical techniques.

Let’s look at three examples.

This is an audio read through of the (initial version of) When Extreme Necessity is the Mother of Invention, published on New Things Under the Sun.

Articles Mentioned:
Agarwal, Richer, and Patrick Gaule. 2022. What Drives Innovation? Lessons from COVID-19 R&D. Journal of Health Economics 82: 102591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102591

Bloom, Nicholas, Steven J. Davis, and Yulia Zhestkova. 2021. COVID-19 Shifted Patent Applications towards Technologies That Support Working from Home. AEA Papers and Proceedings 111: 263-266. https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20211057

Hassler, John, Per Krusell, and Conny Olovsson. 2021. Directed Technical Change as a Response to Natural Resource Scarcity. Journal of Political Economy 129(11): 3039-3072. https://doi.org/10.1086/715849

Ilzetzki, Ethan. 2022. Learning by Necessity: Government Demand, Capacity Constraints, and Productivity Growth. Working paper.

Gross, Daniel P., and Bhaven N. Sampat. 2020. Organizing Crisis Innovation: Lessons from World War II. NBER Working Paper 27909. http://doi.org/10.3386/w27909