The New Goliaths
James Bessen’s new book “The New Goliaths: How Corporations Use Software to Dominate Industries, Kill Innovation, and Undermine Regulation” available from Yale University Press, Amazon.
An approach to reinvigorating economic competition that doesn’t break up corporate giants, but encourages them to share their technology, data, and knowledge
“Bessen is a master of unpacking the nuances of a complex array of interrelated trends to build a coherent story of how the promise of the democratized Internet ended up under the control of just a few. Read The New Goliaths to see how the forest came to have only room for a few tall trees with the rest of us in the undergrowth.”—Joshua Gans
“Jim Bessen offers the first detailed account of how concretely the IT revolution ended up discouraging growth and creative destruction in the overall economy while dramatically increasing market concentration and income inequality. This book is an absolute must-read for scholars, policy makers, and anyone interested in the history of growth, innovation, and technological revolutions.”—Philippe Aghion, coauthor of The Power of Creative Destruction
Reviews and Related
- New York Times, July 21, 2022, by Steve Lohr
- MIT Technology Review, How big technology systems are slowing innovation
- Progressive Policy Institute, Unlocking Frontier Technology:The Policy Challenge of the Digital Economy
- The Enlightened Economist (Diane Coyle): Goliaths Everywhere
- “The Newsprint Goliaths,” Economic Principals (David Warsh)
- Politics Today review.
Audio / Video
Does Software Actually Slow Innovation?
- OECD: Conversation with Jim Bessen on AI, Innovation, Productivity, and Work
- Financial Brand: Are Big Banks Hurting Competition, Innovation and Equality?
- Democratizing Data, BU Record podcast
- KPCW: Mountain Money, The New Goliaths
Speaking Events including video
- Financial Times, Future of Work, keynote, 10/19
- Boston University School of Law, “Law and Technology in a Changing World: Competition, Dignity, Innovation, and Privacy“, 10/28
- International Monetary Fund, Research Dept., 11/8
- NYU/LMU Center for the Future of Management, 11/17 video
- Boston Museum of Science, EmPowered by AI: Workforce of the Future Town Hall, 11/30, video
- OECD, EU Commission, & College de France, Paris, January 20/2023 14:00 CET, video
- Hertie School, Berlin, The New Goliaths (video), 02/15/23 .
- Dartmouth, May 1, 4:00p.
- Boston City Hall, May 22, 12:00p, details to come.