Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17179
Authors: Kathrin Wernsdorf; Markus Nagler; Martin Watzinger
Abstract: Does access to technologies that reduce information and communication costs increase innovation? We examine this question by exploiting the staggered adoption of BITNET across U.S. universities in the 1980s. BITNET, an early version of the Internet, enabled e-mail-based knowledge exchange and collaboration among academics. After the adoption of BITNET, university-connected inventors increase patenting substantially. The effects are driven by collaborative patents by new inventor teams. The patents induced by ICT are closely related to science. In contrast, we neither find an effect on patents not closely related to science nor on corporate inventors unconnected to universities.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: H54; L23; L86; O30; O32; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Adoption of Bitnet (L96) | Increase in patenting activity among university-connected inventors (O39) |
| Adoption of Bitnet (L96) | Enhanced collaboration among new inventor teams (O36) |
| Enhanced collaboration among new inventor teams (O36) | Increase in patenting activity among university-connected inventors (O39) |
| Adoption of Bitnet (L96) | Patents closely related to scientific research (O32) |
| Adoption of Bitnet (L96) | Decrease in average quality of patents (L15) |