Recombinant Innovation, Novel Ideas, and the Start of Nobel Prize–Winning Work

John C. Ham, Brian Quistorff and Bruce A. Weinberg

International Economic Review, 2025, vol. 66, issue 2, 965-979

Abstract: We draw on a recombinant view of innovation, where being in a new location and/or multiple locations leads to exposure to novel combinations of ideas that increase the creativity of top scientists. Using a rich, unique data set we helped assemble, we estimate the empirical relationship between being in a new location and/or multiple locations and the expected interval before an eventual Nobel laureate (ENL) commences their prize‐winning work. We find that being in a new location and in multiple locations are substantially and significantly associated with a shorter expected interval before ENLs commence their prize‐winning work.

Date: 2025
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