Real Effects of Academic Research Revisited

Adam Jaffe, Laura B. Shupp and Valentina Tartari

No 35017, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This Chapter surveys the findings of social science research on the contribution of universities to innovation and economic growth, both locally/regionally and globally. In the last several decades research has demonstrated universities’ causal effects through the mechanisms of knowledge creation, education and training of students, and technology transfer/entrepreneurship. The Chapter summarizes how the literature has studied each of these mechanisms, and how the findings have probed variation across disciplines and economic sectors. The depth and breadth of understanding have been advanced by new microdata and new methods of linking data across inventions, scientists and institutions, and by application of methods from network science. We emphasize that research has proven the importance of these effects on average, but to date has less to say about the determinants of success or failure in different contexts. These findings have implications for public policy to foster innovation both regionally and globally.

JEL-codes: I2 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
Note: PR
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w35017.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
Chapter: Real Effects of Academic Research Revisited (2025)
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:nbr:nberwo:35017

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w35017
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().