Working Paper: NBER ID: w26235
Authors: Michael J. Andrews
Abstract: To estimate the local effect of establishing land grant colleges, I compare locations that receive a land grant college to “runner-up” counties that were in contention to receive the land grant but did not for as-good-as-random reasons. I find that establishing a land grant college causes an increase in local invention, including in particular agricultural inventions, in college counties relative to the runner-up counties. But land grant college counties see only small and imprecisely estimated improvements in agricultural performance, measured by yield and output, relative to runner-up counties. I discuss several alternative interpretations of these findings. By comparing the establishment of land grant colleges to non-land grant colleges, I show that land grants appear to cause smaller increases in local invention, population, and agricultural output, but larger increases in agricultural yields and new crop varieties. The effect of land grant colleges on local innovations is largest, even relative to non-land grant colleges, following the passage of legislation that increases funding to agricultural research.
Keywords: land grant colleges; agricultural innovation; agricultural output; local effects
JEL Codes: N0; N5; O13; O3; Q1; Q16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Innovations developed at land grant colleges (Q16) | Diffusion to other areas (F29) |
| Establishing a land grant college (I29) | Increase in local invention (O39) |
| Land grant college counties (I23) | Small improvements in agricultural performance (Q16) |
| Land grant colleges (I29) | Smaller increases in local innovation and population (O39) |
| Land grant colleges (I29) | Larger increases in agricultural yields and new crop varieties (Q16) |
| Increased funding for agricultural research (Q16) | Effects of land grant colleges on local innovations (I23) |