Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP12704
Authors: Sam Arts; Reinhilde Veugelers
Abstract: Matching survey data on Ph.D. scientists and engineers currently working in an R&D job in industry with their publications and patents, we study the relationship between their individual traits and the nature of their inventive performance. We find that individuals with a strong taste for science, i.e. motivated by intellectual challenge, independence, and contribution to society, create more novel and impactful patents. Academic boundary spanning, proxied by scientific publications co-authored with academic scientists, mediates the effect of taste for science, but only partly and only on impact-weighted inventive output. For novelty of inventive output, we find no mediation through academic boundary spanning. Individuals with a strong taste for salary collaborate less with academic scientists, fully mediating the negative effect of taste for salary on impact-weighted inventive output.
Keywords: taste for science; industry-science links
JEL Codes: O31; O32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| taste for science (C99) | patent count (O34) |
| taste for science (C99) | citation-weighted patent count (O34) |
| taste for science (C99) | new word count (Y60) |
| taste for salary (J31) | patent count (O34) |
| taste for salary (J31) | citation-weighted patent count (O34) |