Coordinated R&D Programs and the Creation of New Industries

Daniel Gross and Maria P. Roche

No 35978, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Large, mission-oriented R&D efforts sometimes generate substantial technological advances, but their commercial impacts vary. This paper uses one such effort—the U.S. World War II radar program—to explore how the outputs of such programs may contribute to later commercial development. Using archival records together with data on firm entry, patenting, and technical labor flows, we reconstruct the organization and outputs of wartime radar R&D, document the rapid postwar growth of a civilian industry, and evaluate which outputs were used in subsequent commercial activity. Codified knowledge (in publications and patents) diffused broadly, embodied knowledge (trained personnel) diffused more locally, and the component-system industrial architecture of the wartime program was mirrored in firms' postwar commercial positions. The evidence points to specific channels through which coordinated technology development programs can give shape to emerging high-tech industries.

JEL-codes: N42 N72 O31 O32 O33 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-his and nep-sbm
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