Economic Impact of Investments in R&D and Science and Engineering Workers

R 投资的经济影响

• 批准号: 1918445
• 负责人: Gerald Marschke
• 金额: $ 54.81万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1918445&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Economic; Impact; Investments; R& Science

The U.S. economy is a global leader in innovation, and its workforce is highly mobile. This project investigates the link between innovation and labor mobility, examining the role of the movement of workers (especially scientists and engineers) in fostering and diffusing innovation in the economy. The research addresses how the science and engineering workforce of firms and establishments affect productivity: In a firm, does mixing together workers with diverse employment histories help generate new ideas and foster innovation? Does movement of workers between firms help spread new ideas and transfer technology across firms in the economy? Answering these questions provides a better understanding of dynamic, regional agglomeration economies, such as Silicon Valley, and the mechanisms behind economic growth. This research has ramifications for policies relating to labor mobility, innovation, and investment in R&D and science and engineering workers. If the spread of ideas and technology through worker mobility is important to economic growth, then the formulation of policies that influence mobility of workers within labor markets or among regions, states, and countries -- e.g., tax and health insurance policies, housing and urban policy, immigration policy, intellectual property rules and enforcement of noncompete covenants in employment -- need to be sensitive to their effect on economic growth and productivity.The project uses detailed, economy-wide employer-employee linked data on workers' employment histories and employer characteristics, combined with data on firms' R&D, to analyze the diffusion of technology through the economy. The project produces new estimates of the private returns to R&D, at the firm and business establishment level. There is substantial evidence that R&D spillovers between firms are important and have an impact that is at least of the same order of magnitude as the direct, private returns to R&D investment. The project develops new evidence on the sources of R&D spillovers and the magnitudes of spillovers at the firm and establishment levels. The research addresses two interrelated questions about R&D spillovers: (i) Are worker flows an important source of knowledge spillovers between firms? (ii) How do labor mobility-mediated knowledge spillovers relate to the technology spillovers between firms documented in previous research? In particular, are labor mobility-mediated knowledge spillovers the source of technology spillovers, or are they an additional and separate effect? The project research contributes to the understanding of wage formation for science and engineering workers, and workers in other occupations that are exposed to or participate in R&D activities; and expands understanding of how scientific and technological advances stimulate economic activity, and how investments in R&D and in workers propagate through the economy. The research approach is especially promising because of its use of rich and comprehensive microdata at economy-wide scale. The research contributes to NSF/Census R&D survey data collection and utility, by developing machine learning methods for identifying smaller R&D-performing firms, and allocating firms' R&D investments to the relevant establishments of the firm.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国经济在创新方面处于全球领先地位，其劳动力流动性很高。该项目研究创新与劳动力流动之间的联系，研究工人（特别是科学家和工程师）的流动在促进和传播经济创新方面的作用。该研究探讨了公司和机构的科学和工程劳动力如何影响生产力：在公司中，将具有不同就业经历的员工混合在一起是否有助于产生新想法和促进创新？工人在企业之间的流动是否有助于在经济中的企业之间传播新思想和转让技术？回答这些问题可以让我们更好地了解硅谷等充满活力的区域集聚经济以及经济增长背后的机制。这项研究对劳动力流动、创新以及研发和科学与工程人员投资相关的政策产生影响。如果通过工人流动传播思想和技术对经济增长很重要，那么在制定影响劳动力市场内或地区、州和国家之间工人流动的政策时——例如税收和健康保险政策、住房和城市政策、移民政策、知识产权规则以及就业中非竞争契约的执行——就需要对其对经济增长和生产率的影响保持敏感。该项目使用了详细的、全经济范围的数据。 雇主-雇员将工人就业历史和雇主特征的数据与企业研发数据相结合，分析技术在经济中的扩散。该项目对公司和企业层面的私人研发回报进行了新的估计。有大量证据表明，企业之间的研发溢出效应很重要，其影响至少与直接的私人研发投资回报具有相同的数量级。该项目就研发溢出的来源以及企业和机构层面的溢出程度提供了新的证据。该研究解决了有关研发溢出效应的两个相互关联的问题：（i）工人流动是企业之间知识溢出的重要来源吗？ (ii) 劳动力流动介导的知识溢出与先前研究中记录的企业之间的技术溢出有何关系？特别是，劳动力流动介导的知识溢出是技术溢出的根源，还是一种额外的、单独的效应？该项目研究有助于了解科学和工程人员以及接触或参与研发活动的其他职业工人的工资形成；加深对科学技术进步如何刺激经济活动，以及研发投资和工人投资如何在经济中传播的理解。该研究方法特别有前途，因为它在经济范围内使用了丰富而全面的微观数据。该研究通过开发机器学习方法来识别较小的研发绩效公司，并将公司的研发投资分配给公司的相关机构，为 NSF/人口普查研发调查数据的收集和利用做出贡献。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。