ABSTRACT
Many factors that made for once-commanding American leads in international competition have eroded, from educational excellence to the commercialization of technologies to financial strengths. The best US example of institutional innovation and the greatest success story of American technology transfer are in the area of agriculture. The transfer of scientific knowledge, through technology, to practical application by the ultimate entrepreneur of the free-enterprise sys— the farmer — was a process started by Abraham Lincoln with the Morrill Act of 1862. While much past US success has been due to innovative government action of the kind exemplified by the encouragement of agriculture, some is the result of incentives and disincentives that have evolved over the years through the tax system, accounting rules, security market regulations, constraints on the banking system, bankruptcy laws, and other factors. Much has been due as well to unique social and cultural factors that have received relatively little attention.
