"This paper extends the concept of star scientist to all areas of science and technology. We follow 1,838 stars' careers 1981-2004, using their publication history to locate them each year. The number of stars in a U.S. region or in one of the top-25 science and technology countries has a...

We document that since 1997, the rate of startup formation has precipitously declined for firms operated by U.S. PhD recipients in science and engineering. These are supposedly the source of some of our best new technological and business opportunities. We link this to an increasing burden of...