Technological Innovation and Prize Incentives: The Google Lunar X Prize and Other Aerospace Competitions

Inducement prizes - in which cash rewards are offered to motivate the attainment of specific targets - have long been used to stimulate scientific discovery and technology research and development. This volume presents an empirical investigation of the effect of these prizes on innovation.

In this in-depth study, Luciano Kay focuses on three recent cases of prize competitions in the aerospace industry: the Google Lunar X Prize, the Ansari X Prize and the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challen...