America, Jump-Started: World War II R&D and the Takeoff of the US Innovation Systems

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gross, Daniel P.; Sampat, Bhaven N.
• 署名单位: Duke University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20221365
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 3323-3356
• 关键词: local economic-development; increasing returns; spillovers; POLICY; agglomeration

摘要

During World War II, the US government's Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) supported one of the largest public investments in applied R&D in US history. Using data on all OSRD-funded invention, we show this shock had a formative impact on the US innovation system, catalyzing technology clusters across the country, with accompanying increases in high-tech entrepreneurship and employment. These effects persist until at least the 1970s and appear to be driven by agglomerative forces and endogenous growth. In addition to creating technology clusters, wartime R&D permanently changed the trajectory of overall US innovation in the direction of OSRD-funded technologies. (JEL H56, N42, N72, 031, 033, 038, R11)