The Economic Spillovers from Science

科学支出越来越多地受到其产生的经济溢出效应的推动，例如创造就业机会，但对科学活动的总体效益有不同的看法。一方面，科学研究被视为其所在社区的经济驱动力。北方加州的硅谷、马萨诸塞州波士顿周围的128号公路走廊、北卡罗来纳州的研究三角园区以及德克萨斯州奥斯汀的小型科技初创企业集群的成功往往归功于这些社区的科学研究。另一方面，科学往往被视为主要是"象牙塔"，实用价值有限。 定量了解科学的经济溢出效应对于从州和地方到国家层面寻求设定科学资助水平的政策制定者至关重要。尽管有这种政策利益，但令人惊讶的是，很少有量化科学经济效益的工作。该项目提供了这样的估计，显示了我们应该从全国各地的城市的科学和研究支出预期的结果。除了直接导致有价值的发明，科学活动被认为是提高生产力的社区进行。该项目的重点是这些生产力溢出效应。我们对科学的这些经济溢出效应的理解还不是很好，至少部分是因为估计科学的溢出效益存在三个重大挑战。具体来说：（1）像波士顿和弗朗西斯科这样的城市，进行大量的研究，可能与研究量小的城市有本质的不同。这种差异很可能导致研究人员错误地陈述科学的溢出效应，将真正应归功于城市本身的东西归因于"城市中的科学"。 (2)生活在一个科学活动频繁的城市里的典型的人可能比生活在其他城市里的典型的人更有生产力。例如，大量的科学是由大学产生的，大学显然为学生创造了技能，并可能吸引高生产力的工人。这种差异往往会导致研究人员夸大科学的溢出效应。(3)如果研究提高了一个城市的生产力，那么人们自然会期望工人搬到那个城市，并期望城市扩大。然而，劳动力流入科学活动更多但就业机会不多的城市，将压低工资，这导致研究人员低估了科学的溢出效应。本项目在估算科学的经济溢出效应时，包括了所有这些效应。我们将一个城市的工资、房地产价格和其他重要的经济成果与那里的科学活动指标联系起来。我们利用广泛的策略来解决所有三个挑战，挫败了以前的研究，包括开发一个通用的框架，他们可以解决。我们还将提供丰富的科学活动数据，供未来研究使用。更广泛的影响这些估计将有助于政策制定者评估科学产生的经济效益，以微调科学投资。该项目将具体确定科学活动如何影响基于性别，种族，民族和年龄的代表性不足的群体。 在该项目下制定的战略也可用于估计科学刺激支出的效益，并评估哪些支出产生了最大的效益。

Spending on science is increasingly motivated by the economic spillovers it generates, such as job creation, but there are mixed views of the overall benefits of scientific activities. On the one hand, science research is seen as an economic driver for the communities where it is produced. The successes of Silicon Valley in Northern California, the Route 128 corridor around Boston MA, the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, and the clusters of small tech startups in Austin TX are often attributed to the scientific research produced in these communities. On the other hand, science is often viewed as being primarily "ivory tower," with limited practical value. A quantitative understanding of the economic spillovers from science is critical for policy makers from the state and local levels to the national level seeking to set science-funding levels. Despite this policy interest, there is surprisingly little work quantifying the economic benefits of science. This project provides such estimates, showing what results we should expect from science and research spending in cities across the nation.In addition to leading directly to valuable inventions, scientific activity is believed to raise productivity in the communities where it is performed. This project focuses on these productivity spillovers. Our understanding of these economic spillovers from science is not very good yet, at least in part because there are three significant challenges to estimating the spillover benefits of science. Specifically:(1) Cities like Boston and San Francisco, where a large amount of research is performed, may be inherently different from cities with a small amount of research. Such differences are likely to lead researchers to misstate the spillover benefits from science, attributing to "science in the city" what is really attributable to the city itself. (2) The typical person living in a city with a lot of scientific activity may be more productive than the typical person in other cities. For instance, a large amount of science is produced by universities, which clearly generate skills for their students and may attract highly productive workers. Such differences would tend to lead researchers to overstate the spillover benefits of science.(3) If research raises productivity in a city, it would be natural to expect workers to move to that city and for the city to expand. An inflow of workers to cities with more scientific activity but not more jobs will depress wages, however, leading researchers to understate the spillovers from science.This project includes all of these effects in estimating the economic spillovers from science. We relate wages, real-estate prices, and other important economic outcomes in a city to measures of scientific activity there. We exploit a wide range of strategies to address all three of the challenges that have frustrated previous research, including developing a general framework in which they can be addressed. We will also produce rich data on scientific activity that will be available for future research. Broader ImpactsThese estimates will help policymakers value the economic benefits generated by science to fine-tune science investments. The project will specifically determine how scientific activity affects underrepresented groups based on gender, race, ethnicity, and age. The strategy developed under this project can also be applied to estimate the benefits of science stimulus spending and evaluate which expenditures produced the most benefits.