Dancing with the Stars: Innovation Through Interactions

Ufuk Akcigit, Santiago Caicedo, Ernest Miguelez, Stefanie Stantcheva and Valerio Sterzi

No 24466, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: An inventor's own knowledge is a key input in the innovation process. This knowledge can be built by interacting with and learning from others. This paper uses a new large-scale panel dataset on European inventors matched to their employers and patents. We document key empirical facts on inventors' productivity over the life cycle, inventors' research teams, and interactions with other inventors. Among others, most patents are the result of collaborative work. Interactions with better inventors are very strongly correlated with higher subsequent productivity. These facts motivate the main ingredients of our new innovation-led endogenous growth model, in which innovations are produced by heterogeneous research teams of inventors using inventor knowledge. The evolution of an inventor's knowledge is explained through the lens of a diffusion model in which inventors can learn in two ways: By interacting with others at an endogenously chosen rate; and from an external, age-dependent source that captures alternative learning channels, such as learning-by-doing. Thus, our knowledge diffusion model nests inside the innovation-based endogenous growth model. We estimate the model, which fits the data very closely, and use it to perform several policy exercises, such as quantifying the large importance of interactions for growth, studying the effects of reducing interaction costs (e.g., through IT or infrastructure), and comparing the learning and innovation processes of different countries.

JEL-codes: H25 L16 O31 O33 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro
Note: EFG PE PR
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (80)

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Working Paper: Dancing with the Stars: Innovation through Interactions (2018)
Working Paper: Dancing with the Stars: Innovation Through Interactions (2018)
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