CAREER: Rethinking National Innovation Systems -- Economic Downturns, Offshoring, and the Global Evolution of Technology

在过去十年中，美国(U.S.)创新生态系统一再受到系统范围的冲击。这些冲击的范围从互联网泡沫破裂，到新一波离岸外包，再到最近汽车和金融行业的崩盘。尽管过去的研究着眼于此类危机对就业或美国经济离散部门的影响，但它没有考虑到此类冲击可能如何改变全球生产活动的轨迹、技术轨迹和国家的比较优势。智力价值：这项研究展示了2000年3月电信泡沫的破裂如何影响了美国和国际上的创新数量、方向和地点。这项研究的重点是光子学方面的创新，这是一种通用技术，不仅在电信行业，而且在能源、生物技术、传感、成像、计算和军事应用方面也是增长的核心。这项研究回答了五个问题：(1)离岸外包如何影响美国公司的研发(R&D)轨迹？(2)如果离岸公司放弃研发；D在新技术方面，个人发明者是否继续在美国的其他机构进行这些新技术的研究？(3)替代的国家创新系统，如日本的，是否对此类冲击具有更强的韧性？(4)作为离岸公司东道国的发展中国家的替代生产经济和制度环境是否会导致这些国家出现新的技术轨迹？(5)在经济低迷期间，美国发明家的个人特征如何影响他们的职业轨迹？该教育计划开发了一门新的课程，以培训新一代大学毕业生和政策分析师使用分析工具。更广泛的影响：在金融和工业危机时期，政策往往侧重于应对失业或提供企业或行业救助，而不是对更广泛的创新生态系统的长期影响。这一综合研究和教育计划为政策制定者提供了洞察力，让他们了解美国创新生态系统的哪些方面受到经济衰退的影响最大，哪些技术最容易受到离岸外包的影响，以及如何在此类危机中增强国家比较优势。

Over the past decade, the United States (U.S.) innovation ecosystem has repeatedly been subjected to system-wide shocks. These shocks have ranged from the dot-com bubble burst, to new waves of off-shoring to the recent meltdowns in the automotive and financial sectors. While past research has looked at the impact of such crises on jobs or discrete sections of the U.S. economy, it has failed to look at how such shocks may change the global locus of productive activity, technology trajectories, and the comparative advantage of nations. Intellectual Merit: This research demonstrates how the burst of the telecommunications bubble in March 2000 affected the quantity, direction, and locus of innovation both in the U.S. and internationally. The research focuses on innovation in photonics, a general purpose technology central to growth not only in the telecommunication industry, but also in energy, biotechnology, sensing, imaging, computing and military applications. This research answers five questions: (1) How does off-shoring impact the research and development (R&D) trajectories of U.S. firms? (2) If off-shoring firms abandon R&D in new technologies, do individual inventors continue their research efforts in those new technologies in other institutions still in the U.S.? (3) Do alternative national innovation systems, such as Japan's, have greater resilience to such shocks? (4) Do the alternative production economics and institutional environments in the developing nations hosting the off-shoring firms lead to new technology trajectories in those nations? (5) How do the characteristics of individual U.S. inventors affect their career trajectories during economic downturns? The education plan develops a new curriculum to train a new generation of university graduates and policy analysts in analytic tools. Broader Impact: During times of financial and industrial crisis, policies often focus on responding to job loss or providing firm or industrial bailouts, rather than the long-term impact on the broader innovation ecosystem. This integrated research and education plan provides policy-makers with insights into what aspects of the U.S. innovation ecosystem are most affected by economic downturns, what technologies are most susceptible to off-shoring, and how to bolster national comparative advantage during such crises.