Contributor : Profile
William Kerr is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School. His research and teaching focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. One research strand examines the role of immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs in US technology development, as well as the subsequent diffusion of new innovations to the immigrants’ home countries. A second research strand considers agglomeration and entrepreneurship, with special interest in how government policies aid or hinder the entry of new firms. His final research interest is entrepreneurial finance and angel investments. He received his PhD from MIT in 2005.
Posts by William Kerr
Land and financial misallocation in India
Optimising the allocation of factors of production – land, capital and labour - improves productivity. In India, where evidence suggests land is severely misallocated to inefficient manufacturing fi...
- Gilles Duranton Ejaz Ghani Arti Grover Goswami William Kerr
- 20 July, 2016
- Articles
India's energy efficiency
India is the fourth largest energy consumer in the world but is not well endowed with energy resources, making efficiency in energy use very important. This column analyses the spatial dynamics of el...
- Ejaz Ghani Arti Grover Goswami William Kerr
- 10 November, 2015
- Articles
Rise of informality in India's tradable manufacturing sector
The vast informal sector in India affects everything from poverty to growth. This column presents new facts on how Indian job growth in manufacturing is concentrated in informal tradable industries, ...
- Ejaz Ghani William Kerr Alex Segura
- 13 July, 2015
- Articles
Growing through cities in India
Do cities grow through specialisation or diversity? This column measures specialisation and diversity for the manufacturing and services sectors in India. It finds that Indian districts with a broade...
- Ejaz Ghani William Kerr Ishani Tewari
- 20 June, 2014
- Articles
What makes cities more competitive in India?
Policymakers in both developed and developing countries want to make cities more competitive, attract new entrepreneurs, boost economic growth, and promote job creation. This column shows that the two...
- Ejaz Ghani William Kerr Stephen D O'Connell
- 07 March, 2014
- Articles
Who creates jobs?
With millions of young people entering the labour market each year, the big question is whether there will be enough jobs for them. But who actually creates these jobs? This column looks at data from...
- Ejaz Ghani William Kerr Stephen D O'Connell
- 02 August, 2013
- Articles
The Golden Quadrilateral: Highway to success
The Golden Quadrilateral, which connects four major cities in India, is the fifth-longest highway in the world. This column presents research that finds that by improving connectivity, the highway ha...
- Ejaz Ghani Arti Grover Goswami William Kerr
- 10 May, 2013
- Articles
Is India's manufacturing sector moving out of cities?
While urbanisation is moving ahead at a rapid pace in India, industrialisation has slowed down. What explains this disconnect between urbanisation and infrastructure? This column presents results of a...
- Ejaz Ghani Arti Grover Goswami William Kerr
- 15 February, 2013
- Articles
What explains gender disparities in economic participation in India?
The UN Global Gender Gap data shows that women’s economic participation and opportunity is worse in India than in 95% of all other countries studied. This column attempts to uncover what drives the ...
- Ejaz Ghani William Kerr Stephen D O'Connell
- 21 August, 2012
- Articles