Doctoral Dissertation Research: R&D Agglomeration

该项目将探索硅谷式集聚在美国工业研发活动中的普遍程度。通过收集美国研发机构的全面而详细的数据集，这些机构的活动聚集到地区层面，它将生成美国工业研发的第一份系统的地理地图。除了记录硅谷式研发集聚的相对重要性外，该项目还将评估研发活动空间分布的决定因素。具体地说，该项目将经验性地估计哪些因素提高或降低了一家公司将研发设施设在特定地区的可能性。考察的因素将包括从事研发的其他机构和公司的存在、公司制造设施的存在、靠近研究型大学、进入受过高等教育和高度专业化的劳动力市场的机会，以及一个地区的知识产权和税收政策。该项目的一个具体焦点将是研发与制造之间的关系。有些类型的研发不容易从制造过程中分离出来，这在这些情况下导致了研发和制造的共存。由于这个项目将记录过去三十年研发活动空间分布的演变，它将阐明美国制造业的离岸如何影响美国在研发方面的比较优势。更广泛的影响：该项目将使用人口普查-NSF工业研发调查(SIRD)及其后续调查商业研发与创新调查(BRDIS)生成第一个系统的美国工业研发地理地图。这个项目将增加我们对美国研发组织方式的了解，尤其是对研发中的集聚、研发和制造的共址、研发机构之间、研究型大学与工业研发之间的地理中介溢出以及知识产权考虑的重要性。此外，这一项目的成果将有助于广泛的政策讨论，包括讨论区域和国家增长政策、产业政策、知识产权法、大学研究及其公共资助，以及高等教育对经济的影响。

This project will explore the prevalence of Silicon Valley-type clustering in industrial R&D activity in the U.S. By assembling a comprehensive and detailed dataset on U.S. R&D-performing establishments whose activities aggregated to the regional level, it will generate the first systematic, geographical mapping of U.S. industrial R&D. In addition to documenting the relative importance of Silicon Valley-style R&D agglomeration, the project will evaluate the determinants of the spatial distribution of R&D activity. Specifically, the project will empirically estimate what factors raise or lower the likelihood that a firm locates its R&D facilities in a particular region. The factors examined will include the presence of other establishments and firms performing R&D, the presence of the firm's manufacturing establishments, proximity to research universities, access to highly-educated and highly-specialized labor markets, and a region's intellectual property and tax policies. A specific focus of the project will be the relationship between R&D and manufacturing. Some types of R&D are not easily disassociated from the manufacturing process and this has led in these instances to the co-location of R&D and manufacturing. Because this project will document the evolution of the spatial distribution of R&D activities over the last three decades, it will shed light on how the off-shoring of the U.S. manufacturing industry has affected U.S. comparative advantage in R&D. Broader impacts: This project will generate the first, systematic geographical mapping of U.S. industrial R&D using the Census-NSF Survey of Industrial R&D (SIRD) and in its successor survey the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS). This project will increase our understanding of how R&D in the U.S. is organized, and in particular the importance of agglomeration in R&D, of co-location of R&D and manufacturing, of geographically-mediated spillovers among R&D establishments and between research universities and industrial R&D, and of intellectual property considerations. In addition, the results of this project will contribute to a wide range of policy discussions, including discussions of regional and national growth policy, industrial policy, intellectual property law, university research and its public funding, and the impact of higher education on the economy.