America, Jump-started: World War II R&D and the Takeoff of the U.S. Innovation System

Daniel Gross and Bhaven Sampat

No 27375, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: During World War II, the U.S. government's Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) supported one of the largest public investments in applied R&D in U.S. history. Using data on all OSRD-funded invention, we show that this shock had a formative impact on the U.S. innovation system, catalyzing technology clusters across the country, with accompanying increases in high-tech entrepreneurship and employment. These effects persist until at least the 1970s, and appear to be driven by agglomerative forces and endogenous growth. In addition to creating technology clusters, wartime R&D permanently changed the trajectory of overall U.S. innovation in the direction of OSRD-funded technologies.

JEL-codes: H56 N42 N72 O31 O32 O33 O38 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-ino and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published as Daniel P. Gross & Bhaven N. Sampat, 2023. "America, Jump-Started: World War II R&D and the Takeoff of the US Innovation System," American Economic Review, vol 113(12), pages 3323-3356.

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