Superstar Extinction
We estimate the magnitude of spillovers generated by 112 academic “superstars” who died prematurely and unexpectedly, thus providing an exogenous source of variation in the structure of their collaborators’ coauthorship networks. Following the death of a superstar, we find that collaborators expe...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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MIT Press
2010
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/58802 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6511-4824 |
| _version_ | 1826211527146864640 |
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| author | Azoulay, Pierre Wang, Jialan Graff Zivin, Joshua S. |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Azoulay, Pierre Wang, Jialan Graff Zivin, Joshua S. |
| author_sort | Azoulay, Pierre |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We estimate the magnitude of spillovers generated by 112 academic “superstars”
who died prematurely and unexpectedly, thus providing an exogenous source
of variation in the structure of their collaborators’ coauthorship networks. Following
the death of a superstar, we find that collaborators experience, on average,
a lasting 5% to 8% decline in their quality-adjusted publication rates. By exploring
interactions of the treatment effect with a variety of star, coauthor, and
star/coauthor dyad characteristics, we seek to adjudicate between plausible mechanisms
that might explain this finding. Taken together, our results suggest that
spillovers are circumscribed in idea space, but less so in physical or social space.
In particular, superstar extinction reveals the boundaries of the scientific field to
which the star contributes—the “invisible college.” |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:07:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/58802 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:07:24Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | MIT Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/588022022-10-02T00:44:21Z Superstar Extinction Azoulay, Pierre Wang, Jialan Graff Zivin, Joshua S. Sloan School of Management Azoulay, Pierre Azoulay, Pierre Wang, Jialan We estimate the magnitude of spillovers generated by 112 academic “superstars” who died prematurely and unexpectedly, thus providing an exogenous source of variation in the structure of their collaborators’ coauthorship networks. Following the death of a superstar, we find that collaborators experience, on average, a lasting 5% to 8% decline in their quality-adjusted publication rates. By exploring interactions of the treatment effect with a variety of star, coauthor, and star/coauthor dyad characteristics, we seek to adjudicate between plausible mechanisms that might explain this finding. Taken together, our results suggest that spillovers are circumscribed in idea space, but less so in physical or social space. In particular, superstar extinction reveals the boundaries of the scientific field to which the star contributes—the “invisible college.” National Science Foundation (U.S.) (SciSIP program (Award SBE-0738142)) Merck Company Foundation National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Contract HHSN263200900009C) 2010-09-30T20:00:52Z 2010-09-30T20:00:52Z 2010-05 2010-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0033-5533 1531-4650 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/58802 Azoulay, Pierre, Joshua S. Graff Zivin, and Jialan Wang. “Superstar Extinction.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 125.2 (2010): 549-589. © 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6511-4824 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2010.125.2.549 Quarterly Journal of Economics Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf MIT Press MIT Press |
| spellingShingle | Azoulay, Pierre Wang, Jialan Graff Zivin, Joshua S. Superstar Extinction |
| title | Superstar Extinction |
| title_full | Superstar Extinction |
| title_fullStr | Superstar Extinction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Superstar Extinction |
| title_short | Superstar Extinction |
| title_sort | superstar extinction |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/58802 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6511-4824 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT azoulaypierre superstarextinction AT wangjialan superstarextinction AT graffzivinjoshuas superstarextinction |