The Long-Term Regional Economic Impacts from Public Investment in University Research

该项目创建了一个新的数据库，从1947年到1992年县级制造企业的生产力。这些历史数据已在制造业普查报告中公布，但尚未以电子方式提供。这个数据收集项目提供了第一个关于美国县级制造业在相当长一段时间内的电子信息。10年制造业普查期间，大约3，143个县的24个行业的数据（1947年，1954年，1958年，1963年，1967年，1972年，1977年，1982年，1987年和1992年）产生了754，320个县工业年的成本，数量，研究人员的最终目标是构建一个数据库，使他们能够研究公共资助的科学知识如何在不同地点流动，以及这些知识流动如何影响区域经济的发展-从而促进对大学科研公共投资回报的理解。在此资助下收集的数据将有助于研究冷战和太空竞赛时代的科学投资如何影响1947年至1992年的区域经济。研究现代美国研究型大学兴起的这一重要历史事件（以及国家整体经济增长的时期，不时出现经济和政治危机）将有助于揭示公共投资对大学科学的广泛经济影响持续数十年或只是暂时的程度。 通过记录成本、效率和生产力随时间的变化，这些数据还将有助于揭示大学知识使私营制造业受益的渠道。 更广泛的影响：关于冷战和太空竞赛时期美国制造商生产力的小组数据库对广泛的学者有用，这些学者对科学和技术政策在地方一级的直接和间接影响以及美国经济发展的道路更感兴趣。该研究将扩展在先前NSF支持下开发的美国研究型大学经济数据库，以提供每所大学的科学资本和人员清单，从而估计这些大学吸收新科学资金的历史能力。需要产生一个一致的面板的行业县的数据提供了财政支持的本科研究助理。

This project creates a new database of county-level productivity of manufacturing firms from 1947 to 1992. These historical data have been published in the Manufacturing Census reports, but are not yet electronically available. This data-collection project offers the first electronically-available information on U.S. manufacturing at the county level over a fairly long period of time. Data on 24 industries, across roughly 3,143 counties, over 10 Manufacturing Census years (1947, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, and 1992) yields 754,320 county-industry-year observations of cost, quantity, and productivity.The investigators' ultimate goal is to construct a body of data that will enable them to examine how publicly-funded scientific knowledge flows across locations, and how these knowledge flows affect the development of regional economies -- thus advancing the understanding of the returns to public investment in scientific university research. The data collected under the auspices of this grant will facilitate a study of how investments in Cold-War and Space Race-era science impacted regional economies from 1947 to 1992. Research into this important historical episode in the ascendency of the modern American research university (and a period of overall economic growth for the nation, punctuated by economic and political crises) will help to uncover the extent to which the broad economic effects of public investment in university science last for many decades or are simply transitory. Through documenting changes over time in cost, efficiency, and productivity, the data will also help to shed light on the channels through which university knowledge benefits the private manufacturing sector. Broader impacts: The panel database on the productivity of American manufacturers in the Cold War and Space Race periods is useful to a wide range of scholars interested in the direct and indirect impacts of science and technology policy at the local level and in the path of U.S. economic development more generally. The research will extend a database on the economics of American research universities developed under prior NSF support to provide an inventory of scientific capital and personnel at each university and thus an estimate of the historical capacity of these universities to absorb new scientific funding. The need to generate a consistent panel of industry-county data provides financial support for an undergraduate research assistant.