American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
How Do Institutions of Higher Education Affect Local Invention? Evidence from the Establishment of US Colleges
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(pp. 1–41)
Abstract
I use narrative historical data on site selection decisions for a subset of US colleges to identify runner-up locations that were strongly considered to become the sites of new colleges. Using runner-up counties as counterfactuals in a difference-in-difference model, I find that establishing a college causes 62 percent more patents per year. Linking patents to novel college yearbook data reveals that only 12 percent of patents in a college's county came from that college's alumni or faculty. I find only small differences in patenting between establishing colleges and establishing other institutions as well as between colleges with different focuses on technical fields.Citation
Andrews, Michael J. 2023. "How Do Institutions of Higher Education Affect Local Invention? Evidence from the Establishment of US Colleges." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 15 (2): 1–41. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200320Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
- N31 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
- N32 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
- N71 Economic History: Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
- N72 Economic History: Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
- O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
- O34 Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital