Bell Labs: The research center behind the
transistor, and so much more
https://www.marketplace.org/2022/12/13/bell-labs-the-research-center-behind-the-transistor-and-so-much-more/
What made Bell Labs special?
https://physicsworld.com/a/what-made-bell-labs-special/
Bringing back the golden days of Bell Labs
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-022-00426-6.pdf
Innovation Lessons from Bell Labs
https://youtu.be/41VURLI8zFI
https://www.marketplace.org/2022/12/13/bell-labs-the-research-center-behind-the-transistor-and-so-much-more/
What made Bell Labs special?
https://physicsworld.com/a/what-made-bell-labs-special/
Bringing back the golden days of Bell Labs
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-022-00426-6.pdf
Innovation Lessons from Bell Labs
https://youtu.be/41VURLI8zFI
Universities are failing to boost economic growth
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/02/05/universities-are-failing-to-boost-economic-growth
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/02/05/universities-are-failing-to-boost-economic-growth
The Economist:
In practice, however, the great expansion of higher education has coincided with a productivity slowdown. Whereas in the 1950s and 1960s workers’ output per hour across the rich world rose by 4% a year, in the decade before the covid-19 pandemic 1% a year was the norm. Even with the wave of innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), productivity growth remains weak—less than 1% a year, on a rough estimate—which is bad news for economic growth. A new paper by Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon, Larisa C. Cioaca, Lia Sheer and Hansen Zhang, five economists, suggests that universities’ blistering growth and the rich world’s stagnant productivity could be two sides of the same coin.
In practice, however, the great expansion of higher education has coincided with a productivity slowdown. Whereas in the 1950s and 1960s workers’ output per hour across the rich world rose by 4% a year, in the decade before the covid-19 pandemic 1% a year was the norm. Even with the wave of innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), productivity growth remains weak—less than 1% a year, on a rough estimate—which is bad news for economic growth. A new paper by Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon, Larisa C. Cioaca, Lia Sheer and Hansen Zhang, five economists, suggests that universities’ blistering growth and the rich world’s stagnant productivity could be two sides of the same coin.
The Effect of Public Science on Corporate R&D
https://www.nber.org/papers/w31899
Abstract
We study the relationships between corporate R&D and three components of public science: knowledge, human capital, and invention. We identify the relationships through firm-specific exposure to changes in federal agency R\&D budgets that are driven by the political composition of congressional appropriations subcommittees. Our results indicate that R&D by established firms, which account for more than three-quarters of business R&D, is affected by scientific knowledge produced by universities only when the latter is embodied in inventions or PhD scientists. Human capital trained by universities fosters innovation in firms. However, inventions from universities and public research institutes substitute for corporate inventions and reduce the demand for internal research by corporations, perhaps reflecting downstream competition from startups that commercialize university inventions. Moreover, abstract knowledge advances per se elicit little or no response. Our findings question the belief that public science represents a non-rival public good that feeds into corporate R&D through knowledge spillovers.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w31899
Abstract
We study the relationships between corporate R&D and three components of public science: knowledge, human capital, and invention. We identify the relationships through firm-specific exposure to changes in federal agency R\&D budgets that are driven by the political composition of congressional appropriations subcommittees. Our results indicate that R&D by established firms, which account for more than three-quarters of business R&D, is affected by scientific knowledge produced by universities only when the latter is embodied in inventions or PhD scientists. Human capital trained by universities fosters innovation in firms. However, inventions from universities and public research institutes substitute for corporate inventions and reduce the demand for internal research by corporations, perhaps reflecting downstream competition from startups that commercialize university inventions. Moreover, abstract knowledge advances per se elicit little or no response. Our findings question the belief that public science represents a non-rival public good that feeds into corporate R&D through knowledge spillovers.