Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research
While cumulative knowledge production is central to growth, little empirical research investigates how institutions shape whether existing knowledge can be exploited to create new knowledge. This paper assesses the impact of a specific institution, a biological resource center, whose objective is to certify and disseminate knowledge. We disentangle the marginal impact of this institution on cumulative research from the impact of selection, in which the most important discoveries are endogenously linked to research-enhancing institutions. Exploiting exogenous shifts of biomaterials across institutional settings and employing a difference-in-differences approach, we find that effective institutions amplify the cumulative impact of individual scientific discoveries. (JEL D02, D83, I23, O30)
Year of publication: |
2011
|
---|---|
Authors: | Furman, Jeffrey L. ; Stern, Scott |
Published in: |
American Economic Review. - American Economic Association - AEA. - Vol. 101.2011, 5, p. 1933-63
|
Publisher: |
American Economic Association - AEA |
Saved in:
Online Resource
Saved in favorites
Similar items by person
-
Climbing atop the shoulders of giants : the impact of institutions on cumulative research
Furman, Jeffrey L., (2006)
-
Climbing atop the shoulders of giants : the impact of institutions on cumulative research
Furman, Jeffrey L., (2011)
-
The determinants of national innovative capacity
Stern, Scott, (2000)
- More ...