Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Furman, Jeffrey L.; Stern, Scott
• 署名单位: Boston University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.101.5.1933
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 1933-1963
• 关键词: research-and-development; intellectual property; research productivity; cell-lines; patents; KNOWLEDGE; Commercialization; biotechnology; universities; TECHNOLOGY

摘要

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)