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Zorina Khan

Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College

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Economics of/for The Common Good

Thomas Edison and the Bowdoin Inventors

November 15, 2022 By Zorina Khan

Who invented the light bulb? Isaac Adams Jr., Bowdoin class of 1858, created an incandescent light bulb with a carbon filament 14 years before Thomas Edison. However, he failed to persevere and produce a scalable innovation that would benefit consumers in the market. Instead, two highly-educated mathematical scientists from the class of 1875, Francis Upton and Charles Clarke, provided invaluable systematic research at Edison’s lab in Menlo Park. As such, without the contributions of Bowdoin inventors, the discovery and diffusion of electrical lighting would have been significantly retarded.

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes, Old News: Bowdoin Then and Now Tagged With: Bowdoin College, innovation, intellectual property, patents, technology

A Hallowe’en Debate: Diversity and Exclusion

October 13, 2022 By Zorina Khan

October 31 will be memorable for more than Hallowe’en trick or treaters, and may mark the death knell for affirmative action policies in education. At that time, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider once again whether an emphasis on racial diversity is consistent with fundamental constitutional rights. Regardless of the outcome, it can only be beneficial for all stakeholders to engage openly and candidly with the full costs and benefits, trade-offs and unintended consequences of such policies.

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin Tagged With: affirmative action, constitution, diversity, education

Who was the First U.S. Economics Professor? Samuel Newman, of Bowdoin College

September 17, 2022 By Zorina Khan

 Prof. Samuel P. Newman (appointment in Political Economy, 1824-1839).  Samuel Phillips Newman and Bowdoin Economics In 1824, Bowdoin was the first American College to officially introduce a faculty position dedicated to instruction in Economics (or Political Economy, as it was then known).  The University of Virginia in 1826, and Brown University in 1828, followed Bowdoin, […]

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Old News: Bowdoin Then and Now Tagged With: Bowdoin College, economics, education

Old School? Apprenticeships in the 21st Century

August 16, 2022 By Zorina Khan

The word apprentice conjures up visions of sorcerers and medieval guilds (and, in my case, my great-grandmother who learned the goldsmith’s trade through a family apprenticeship).  However, “new collar” apprenticeships seem destined to become the most effective means of  human-capital acquisition for the twenty first century, as they have been for millenia.

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin Tagged With: diversity, economics, education, technology, women

Is Technology a Race? Patents and National Security

May 23, 2022 By Zorina Khan

Metaphors matter.  Is technology a race, or a war with an associated D-day?  References to “the race to 5G” and “innovation wars” are based on a zero-sum model of technological innovation, where there are glorious outcomes for “winners” and dire consequences for “losers.”  According to this ahistorical perspective, the leader takes all, and for the rest of the field, life promises to be poor, nasty, brutish, and short.  In order to avoid this doomsday scenario, previously unthinkable measures become acceptable in the name of “national security.”

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes Tagged With: China, constitution, economics, innovation, intellectual property, patents, technology, vaccines, waivers

Notable Women Inventors of Maine

February 6, 2022 By Zorina Khan

The surge of new inventions and innovations in nineteenth century America transformed the world to an extent that arguably remains unmatched today. Even among the New England states known for their “Yankee ingenuity,” Maine inventors surpassed their peers. Among the few female entries in the National Inventors Hall of Fame are Helen Blanchard and Margaret Knight, celebrated because of their successful industrial machines. But the typical woman inventor productively directed their attention to supposedly minor “feminine inventions” like dress charts and kitchen tools that improved the lives of other women and their families.

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, innovation, patents, technology, women

Back to School for the “Spring” Semester (1861)

January 14, 2022 By Zorina Khan

How many aspects of life at Bowdoin College have remained unchanged since the days when faculty, president, and students all lived in Mass Hall? In January 2022, we can still fervently empathize with this account of the “spring” semester in the Journal of John Deering, Jr., class of 1864: “Find myself back to this honored institution after an absence of nine weeks… Nothing can be seen except a boundless expanse of snow… But after all, I suppose I can pursue my studies and carry out the objects for which I was sent just as well as if the grass were green and the birds singing.”

Filed Under: A Few of my Favourite Things, Old News: Bowdoin Then and Now Tagged With: Bowdoin College, education, literary musings

Looking Backward: From 5G to the Telegraph

December 1, 2021 By Zorina Khan

The advent of 5G cellular technology has induced imaginative speculations about spectacular virtual universes, Humans 3.5 artificial intelligence, and an Internet of Things that will trigger “smart houses” and even smarter cities.  What lessons can earlier telecommunications inventions offer? The focus here is on five issues regarding 5G: the social savings from new innovations; business to business (B2B) relative to consumer markets; private sector versus government-led initiatives; net neutrality; and the right to privacy.

Filed Under: Antitrustworthy, Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes Tagged With: antitrust, China, innovation, intellectual property, patents, technology

Women and Wealth in the New Gilded Age

October 23, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Are we currently living in a new Gilded Age embodied by the multi-billionaires of the Forbes 400, with their excesses of utopian cities and space tourism? Inclusion on The Forbes 400 list for 2021 requires net worth of at least $2.9 billion. However, these data underestimate women’s achievements, and conceal an underlying pattern of increasing entrepreneurial opportunities, socioeconomic mobility, and philanthropy by “robber baronesses.”

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: China, diversity, economics, finance, women

Copyrighting the Cultural Revolution in China and America

August 26, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Like China, Americans were notorious for cultural piracy and weak copyrights. The U.S. finally acknowledged international copyrights when the balance of trade in cultural goods shifted in their favour. Similarly, China today is strongly enforcing copyrights to protect its emerging global leadership in cultural creativity.

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes Tagged With: China, copyright, intellectual property

Women and Innovation in Developing Countries

August 2, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Round table discussion of gender, patents, open source, and technology policy in India. Participants include Zorina Khan (the moderator) and leading Indian academics, patentees, entrepreneurs, and innovators.

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, innovation, open source, patents, technology, women

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Recent Posts

  • Notable Women Inventors in Britain February 21, 2023
  • The Mystery of the Missing Minority Millionairess February 1, 2023
  • A Pioneering Black Woman Patent Attorney February 1, 2023
  • Thomas Edison and the Bowdoin Inventors November 15, 2022
  • A Hallowe’en Debate: Diversity and Exclusion October 13, 2022
  • Who was the First U.S. Economics Professor? Samuel Newman, of Bowdoin College September 17, 2022
  • Old School? Apprenticeships in the 21st Century August 16, 2022
  • In Search of Hetty Green: Self-Made Women Millionaires July 12, 2022
  • Patent Waivers (or “Don’t know much about history…”) June 17, 2022
  • Is Technology a Race? Patents and National Security May 23, 2022
  • Hanami: Cherry Blossom Time, in Perpetuity April 10, 2022
  • Banking on Women March 2, 2022
  • Notable Women Inventors of Maine February 6, 2022
  • Back to School for the “Spring” Semester (1861) January 14, 2022
  • Looking Backward: From 5G to the Telegraph December 1, 2021
  • U.S. Patents: A Play in 10 Million Acts November 21, 2021
  • Crypt-ic Tales October 31, 2021
  • Women and Wealth in the New Gilded Age October 23, 2021
  • Travelling Light October 4, 2021
  • Patent Priority: the First Woman Patent Lawyer September 14, 2021
  • Publish and Perish September 10, 2021
  • Reading on Location August 27, 2021
  • Copyrighting the Cultural Revolution in China and America August 26, 2021
  • The (New) Cultural Revolution in China August 23, 2021
  • Women and Innovation in Developing Countries August 2, 2021
  • Who’s Afraid of Standard Oil? July 31, 2021
  • Are Patents Monopolies? July 28, 2021
  • Between the Covers July 27, 2021
  • An Essay in Idleness July 27, 2021

Categories

  • A Few of my Favourite Things
  • Antitrustworthy
  • Economics of/for The Common Good
  • Life on the Margin
  • Of Patents and Prizes
  • Old News: Bowdoin Then and Now
  • Women in the Republic of Enterprise

Tags

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Notable Women Inventors in Britain

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