ICT, collaboration, and innovation: Evidence from BITNET

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wernsdorf, Kathrin; Nagler, Markus; Watzinger, Martin
• 署名单位: University of Munich; University of Munich; University of Erlangen Nuremberg; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Munster
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104678
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: ICT; COMMUNICATION; Knowledge diffusion; Science-based innovation; University-patenting

摘要

Does access to technologies that reduce information and communication costs increase innovation? We examine this question by exploiting the staggered adoption of BITNET across U.S. universities in the 1980s. BITNET, an early version of the Internet, enabled e-mail-based knowledge exchange and collaboration among academics. After the adoption of BITNET, university-connected inventors increase patenting substantially. The effects are driven by collaborative patents by new inventor teams. The patents induced by ICT are closely related to science. In contrast, we neither find an effect on patents not closely related to science nor on corporate inventors unconnected to universities.