Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research
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...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Economic Association
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75830 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2328-3229 |
| _version_ | 1826190808939757568 |
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| author | Stern, Scott Furman, Jeffrey L. |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Stern, Scott Furman, Jeffrey L. |
| author_sort | Stern, Scott |
| collection | MIT |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:46:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/75830 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:46:01Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | American Economic Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/758302022-09-30T11:06:38Z Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research Stern, Scott Furman, Jeffrey L. Sloan School of Management Stern, Scott 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. 2013-01-07T18:16:19Z 2013-01-07T18:16:19Z 2011-08 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0002-8282 1944-7981 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75830 Furman, Jeffrey L, and Scott Stern. “Climbing Atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research.” American Economic Review 101.5 (2011): 1933–1963. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2328-3229 en_US http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1257/aer.101.5.1933 American Economic Review 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 American Economic Association AEA |
| spellingShingle | Stern, Scott Furman, Jeffrey L. Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research |
| title | Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research |
| title_full | Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research |
| title_fullStr | Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research |
| title_short | Climbing atop the Shoulders of Giants: The Impact of Institutions on Cumulative Research |
| title_sort | climbing atop the shoulders of giants the impact of institutions on cumulative research |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75830 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2328-3229 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sternscott climbingatoptheshouldersofgiantstheimpactofinstitutionsoncumulativeresearch AT furmanjeffreyl climbingatoptheshouldersofgiantstheimpactofinstitutionsoncumulativeresearch |