Liquidity and the Market for Ideas

We study markets where innovators can sell ideas to entrepreneurs, who may be better at implementing them. These markets are decentralized, with random matching and bargaining. Entrepreneurs hold liquid assets lest potentially profitable opportunities may be lost. We extend existing models of the demand for liquidity along several dimensions, including allowing agents to put deals on hold while they try to raise funds. We determine which ideas get traded in equilibrium, compare this to the efficient outcome, and discuss policy implications. We also discuss several special aspects of ideas, as opposed to generic consumption goods: e.g. they are intermediate inputs; they are indivisible; and they are at least partially public (nonrivalous) goodsentrepreneurship, liquidity, random matching, monetary policy