Of Mice and Academics: Examining the Effect of Openness on Innovation

Philippe Aghion (), Mathias Dewatripont, Julian Kolev, Fiona Murray and Scott Stern
Additional contact information
Philippe Aghion: PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, Department of Economics, Harvard University, Collège de France - Chaire Economie des institutions, de l'innovation et de la croissance - CdF (institution) - Collège de France
Mathias Dewatripont: ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles
Julian Kolev: Department of Economics, Harvard University
Fiona Murray: MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Scott Stern: MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) from HAL

Abstract: This paper argues that openness, by lowering costs to access existing research, can enhance both early and late stage innovation through greater exploration of novel research directions. We examine a natural experiment in openness: late-1990s NIH agreements that reduced academics' access costs regarding certain genetically engineered mice. Implementing difference-in-differences estimators, we find that increased openness encourages entry by new researchers and exploration of more diverse research paths, and does not reduce the creation of new genetically engineered mice. Our findings highlight a neglected cost of strong intellectual property restrictions: lower levels of exploration leading to reduced diversity of research output.

Keywords: Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Published in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2016, 8 (1), pp.212-252. ⟨10.1257/pol.20140062⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-01496928

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20140062

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Caroline Bauer ().