Welcome to the Blogosphere: Robert Lowe

Rob Lowe, CMU entrepreneurship and tech transfer researcher and Director of Enterprise Creation (I believe that's still his title), has launched a blog: "Mock Economy."

Rob's inaugural post is about Baumol's theory of destructive entrepreneurship. That's an interesting place for a local expert on university-based economic development to start. A couple of years ago, I heard local tech transfer administrators use the phrase "destructive entreneurship" to defend the idea that universities should pick winners when deciding which faculty research to promote and commercialize, and which to hold back. Too many startups, apparently, would dilute the pool of qualified private management and follow-on investment.

I didn't hear references to Baumol in this pitch, and I'm pretty sure that they were misusing Baumol's theory, and in any case I am optimistic that Pitt and CMU have both moved beyond the "picking winners" approach. It will be interesting to read whether Baumol has anyhthing to do with Pittsburgh today.

Link: http://mockeconomy.blogspot.com/