CREAT: Census Research Exploration and Analysis Tool

The Geography of Inventors and Local Knowledge Spillovers in R&D

October 2024

Written by: Brian C. Fujiy

Working Paper Number:

CES-24-59

Abstract

I causally estimate local knowledge spillovers in R&D and quantify their importance when implementing R&D policies. Using a new administrative panel on German inventors, I estimate these spillovers by isolating quasi-exogenous variation from the arrival of East German inventors across West Germany after the Reunification of Germany in 1990. Increasing the number of inventors by 1% increases inventor productivity by 0.4%. I build a spatial model of innovation, and show that these spillovers are crucial when reducing migration costs for inventors or implementing R&D subsidies to promote economic activity.

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:
estimation, investment, endogeneity, estimating, industrial, growth, technological, invention, specialization, innovation, inventory, patent, subsidy, unobserved, spillover, patenting, externality, prospect

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:
Center for Economic Studies, Ordinary Least Squares, Research Data Center, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, Indian Health Service

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