Research
Working Papers
Bread Upon the Waters: Corporate Science and the Use of Follow-on Public Research.
Revise & Resubmit, Management Science
Winner of the 2023 Best Paper Award in Memory of Paul A. David, the Workshop on the Organization, Economics and Policy of Scientific Research (Max Plank Institute for Innovation and Competition).
Abstract
Why do firms produce scientific research that becomes available to the public, including their rivals? An important but hitherto ignored benefit is that it can influence the direction of research conducted by external scientists in ways that benefit the focal firm. I show that external scientists often build upon a firm’s publications, producing follow-on findings, which the firm then incorporates into its own future innovations. To account for the unobserved quality of the science involved, I develop a new instrumental variable that relies on the quasi-random assignment of accepted manuscripts to specific issues of scientific journals. Some publications attract more academic attention simply because they appear alongside contributions from prominent authors in the same journal issue. Using data on scientific publications by public firms between 1990 and 2012, I find that follow-on research not only drives firms’ subsequent investments in science but also improves their patenting outcomes. The benefits are more pronounced for technological leaders, firms with complementary assets, and those operating in emerging research fields. In addition to being a valuable input into the firm’s innovations, follow-on research also helps validate the quality of the firm’s internal science, especially when there is greater uncertainty. My findings contribute to the understanding of why firms participate in public science.
Opinion Trumps Facts: Entrepreneurship and Competition in Political News with Aaron Chaterji, Sharique Hasan and William D. Miles
Revise & Resubmit, Management Science
Abstract
Market entry plays a critical role in shaping industries, driving innovation, and introducing new types of products that address unmet needs. New entrants not only compete with incumbent firms but can also compel them to adapt their strategies, creating ripple effects for the industry and society at large. This paper examines how entrepreneurial entrants influence the strategies of incumbents, focusing on the American political news business from 2014 to 2021. We find that new entrants produced news content that was significantly more opinionated than that of incumbents, featuring more editorializing and persuasive language. This increased competition prompted incumbents to adopt similar content strategies. On social media, these shifts triggered more posts containing hate speech and expressions of anger. Yet, this content strategy failed to improve a key performance metric: website traffic. Our findings reveal the unintended consequences of media entrepreneurship. While entrants disrupted the traditional news business by amplifying opinionated content and increasing polarization, they did not deliver better business results.
Funding the U.S. Scientific Training Ecosystem: New Data, Methods, and Evidence with Hansen Zhang, Lee Fleming and Daniel P. Gross
Abstract
Using newly-collected data on the near-population of U.S. STEM PhD graduates since 1950, we examine who funds PhD training, how many graduates are trained in areas of strategic national importance, and the effects of public investment in PhD training on the scientific workforce. The U.S. federal government is by far the largest source of financial and in-kind support for STEM PhD training in America. We identify universities and fields where PhD training has a higher or lower intensity of government, industry, or philanthropic support, and the organizations and universities that fund and train the most PhDs in critical technology areas such as AI, quantum information technology, and biotechnology. Leveraging variation in government support across agencies and over time, we provide evidence suggesting that increasing government-funded PhD trainees increases PhD production roughly one-for-one. To support further research, we provide public datasets at multiple levels of aggregation, reporting PhD graduates by (i) critical technology area and (ii) source of support.
Work in Progress
Back to the Future: Are Big Firms Regaining their Scientific and Technological Dominance? Evidence from DISCERN 2.0 with Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon, Larisa Cioaca and Lia Sheer
Who stays, goes, and benefits: the international mobility and contributions of US trained STEM PhDs with Hansen Zhang, Lee Fleming and Daniel P. Gross
When Do Firms Disclose Private Science? Lessons from RCA Labs with Jungkyu Suh
R&D Alliances with Evgenii Fadeev
Journal Publications
When Does Patent Protection Spur Cumulative Research Within Firms? with Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon and Matt Marx, Ahead of print Journal of Law, Economics and Organization. (doi: 10.1093/jleo/ewad006)
Abstract
We estimate the effect of patent protection on follow-on investments in corporate scientific research. We exploit a new method for identifying an exogenous reduction in the protection a granted patent provides. Using data on public, research-active firms between 1990 and 2015, we find that firms respond to a decrease in patent protection by reducing follow-on research, as measured by a drop in internal citations to an associated scientific article. We study this effect across firms with varying commercialization capabilities and across varying thickness levels of markets for technology. We find that the effect is stronger in technologies where patents are traded less frequently. Our findings are consistent with a stylized model whereby patent protection is a strategic substitute for commercialization capability. Our results imply that stronger patents encourage follow-on research, but also shift the locus of research from big firms toward smaller firms and startups. As patent protection has strengthened since the mid-1980s, our results help explain why the American innovation ecosystem has undergone a growing division of innovative labor, where startups become important sources of new ideas.
Pre-PhD Policy Publications
Israeli Agri-tech and Indian Agricultural Challenges: Recommendations for an Updated Governmental Policy, Milken Innovation Center, 2018.
Regional Population Scenarios for the State of Israel 2015-2040 with Shmuel Abramzon, Prime Minister Office of Israel, 2017.