TY  - JOUR
AU  - Agwara, Hezekiah
AU  - Auerswald, Philip
AU  - Higginbotham, Brian
TI  - Algorithms and the Changing Frontier
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 20039
PY  - 2014
Y2  - April 2014
DO  - 10.3386/w20039
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w20039
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w20039.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Hezekiah Agwara
George Mason University
E-Mail: hezekiah.agwara@gmail.com

Philip Auerswald
George Mason University
3351 Fairfax Dr., MS 3B1
Arlington, Virginia 22201
Tel: 202 364-8464
E-Mail: philip.auerswald@gmail.com

Brian Higginbotham
School of Public Policy
George Mason University
E-Mail: bdhigg@gmail.com
M1  - published as Hezekiah Agwara, Philip Auerswald, Brian Higginbotham. "Algorithms and the Changing Frontier," in Adam B. Jaffe and Benjamin F. Jones, editors, "The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy" University of Chicago Press (2015)

M3  - presented at "The Changing Frontier:", August 2-3, 2013
AB  - We first summarize the dominant interpretations of the "frontier" in the United States and predecessor colonies over the past 400 years: agricultural (1610s-1880s), industrial (1890s-1930s), scientific (1940s- 1980s), and algorithmic (1990s-present). We describe the difference between the algorithmic frontier and the scientific frontier. We then propose that the recent phenomenon referred to as "globalization" is actually better understood as the progression of the algorithmic frontier, as enabled by standards that in turn have facilitated the interoperability of firm-level production algorithms. We conclude by describing implications of the advance of the algorithmic frontier for scientific discovery and technological innovation.
ER  -