US Innovation Research Articles

America, Jump-Started: World War II R&D and the Takeoff of the US Innovation System

During World War II, the US government’s Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) supported one of the largest public investments in applied R&D in US history. Using data on all OSRD-funded invention, we show this shock had a formative impact on the US innovation system, catalyzing technology clusters across the country, with accompanying increases in high-tech entrepreneur-ship and employment. These effects persist until at least the 1970s and appear to be driven by agglomerative forces and endogenous growth. In addition to creating technology clusters, wartime R&D permanently changed the trajectory of overall US innovation in the direction of OSRD-funded technologies. (JEL H56, N42, N72, O31, O33, O38, R11)

“How Does This Country Do Big Things?”

Drawing on her four decades in R&D, presidential science and technology advisor Arati Prabhakar talks about how the US innovation ecosystem can help the country and its citizens to flourish.

R&D grants and medical innovation

This paper examines the relationship between government-funded R&D grants in the US and pharmaceutical firm innovation. We find a positive and robust relationship between grant receipt, future patents, and medical innovations. The strength of the relationship between R&D grants and pharmaceutical innovation is attenuated by firm lobbying but strengthened by industry competition, geographic dispersion, and leverage. Investors recognize the unequal value added by grant receipt. R&D grant receipt also impacts future financial performance and sales growth. Our results indicate that the relationship between R&D and innovation is more nuanced than previously identified.

Policymakers Take Notice of Bioeconomy's Potential

Policymakers Take Notice of Bioeconomy's Potential

To Psyche and beyondA Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman Lindy Elkins-Tanton William Morrow, 2022. 272 pp.

The future of US innovation will depend on teamwork, maintains a planetary scientist in a new memoir.

Which policies for vaccine innovation and delivery in Europe?

This paper analyzes the subsequent steps of the covid vaccine experience in the European Union. It stresses the features of the US innovation ecosystem which were responsible for its success. It argues that the European Union did reasonably well in procuring vaccines and logistically organizing their delivery but that vaccine hesitancy proved to be a key constraint. The paper discusses European countries’ vaccination strategies and their plusses and minusses. Finally, it draws some lessons for dealing with the tradeoff between drug and vaccine innovation and affordability, an issue whose importance is bound to grow with promising but costly scientific advances.

Inoculating the University R&D Enterprise: How RISC can strengthen post-COVID-19 research integrity and global supply chains

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has underscored emerging vulnerabilities in the US research and development (R&D) ecosystem. While an open and collaborative environment has been essential for advancing R&D, this approach exposes university-based R&D to a variety of security threats including state-supported efforts, attacks by malicious actors, and insufficient internal mitigation. As the pandemic led to more remote work and online collaboration, the incidence of exploitation has expanded. Increased security measures are needed to insulate and protect the R&D ecosystem, and US innovation more broadly, while maintaining the fundamental qualities that have contributed to its historical success. In this article, we present the Research Integrity Security Certification (RISC) framework. This concept preserves the autonomy of the US higher education system while also suggesting a mechanism whose effect would be a general enhancement of the security of the US university R&D enterprise with minimal additional state involvement. Much of the work in the proposed model is done by market mechanisms and self-interested microeconomic calculations that generate beneficial aggregate effects. The RISC framework modernizes the university R&D enterprise while strengthening it to operate in this evolving security environment.

Анализ и оценка эффективности региональных инновационных систем США

The study is based on methods of analysis and subsequent assessment of the effectiveness of regional innovation systems operating at the US state level, used by both Russian and English and American specialists. Based on statistical data and the results of previously published works by the author, revealing the empirical essence of the spatially heterogeneous innovation activity of the United States, characterized by the corresponding indices and integral indicators, an assessment of the effectiveness of regional innovation systems of each US state is given. Based on the results of the analysis using a number of methodological categories, carried out in the context of the country’s subregions, the author put forward some provisions justifying the spatial heterogeneity and unevenness of the development of US innovation activities in 2015–2019 from the standpoint of assessing the effectiveness of regional systems. The undertaken hierarchical clustering of regional innovation systems reflects a five-member diversity that characterizes, first of all, inventive efficiency in the spatial context of the United States, which takes various options depending on the qualitative characteristics of the scale and boundaries of various factors of innovation activity.

The Contribution of High-Skilled Immigrants to Innovation in the United States

We characterize the contribution of immigrants to US innovation, both through their direct productivity as well as through their indirect spillover effects on their native collaborators. To do so, we link patent records to a database containing the first five digits of 160 million of Social Security Numbers (SSN). By combining this part of the SSN together with year of birth, we identify whether individuals are immigrants based on the age at which their Social Security Number is assigned. We find that over the course of their careers, immigrants are more productive than natives, as measured by number of patents, patent citations, and the economic value of these patents. Immigrant inventors are more likely to rely on foreign technologies, to collaborate with foreign inventors, and to be cited in foreign markets, thus contributing to the importation and diffusion of ideas across borders. Using an identification strategy that exploits premature inventor deaths, we find that immigrant collaborators create especially strong positive externalities on the innovation production of natives, while natives create especially large positive externalities on immigrant innovation production, suggesting that combining these different knowledge pools into inventor teams is important for innovation. A simple decomposition suggests that despite immigrants only making up 16% of inventors, they are responsible for 30% of aggregate US innovation since 1976, with their indirect spillover effects accounting for more than twice their direct productivity contribution.

Differences in Commercialization Policies of Innovations. Customer Perspective

Abstract The last decade in particular has seen prosperity in global challenges. Traditional industry leaders have to compete with the challenges of the new generation in emerging markets. Although the European market is competitively mature, the prosperity in global challenges makes it necessary to defend the domestic market as well as to pursue growth opportunities in emerging markets. Analyzing the trends, a comparison of the US and Chinese innovation commercialization policies from a customer perspective with Europe was distinguished. The main difference is Europe's narrowly defined customer segment, companies do not adapt to customer micro-segments with non-matching product and service requirements, because individual attraction strategies must be implemented for each branch, which increase the difficulty to draw potential global clients. The aim of this work is to analyze the US and Chinese innovation commercialization process policies from a customer perspective to gain an insight into the improvement of European national policy models. A multi-criteria decision analysis was used to compare the US and European influencing factor criteria, which focuses on customer segmentation, to determine the most influential segment. Data were also collected in the analysis of the success of European commercialization. The focus on the US end-market approach is expected to increase the value of the proximity factor by improving the implementation of European innovation policy in practice.

Industrial Transitions in the Black: US Innovation and Scale-up of Carbon Production, 1864 to 1975

This article examines the US carbon black industry from 1864 to 1975, with a focus on innovation and scale-up during World War II. The purpose of the study is to understand the forces behind transitions in the industry’s technologies and business models. The primary research question is what drove the transition to dramatically increased production efficiency and output in the 1940s. I conclude that long-term, firm-based R&D and government sponsored standard-setting provided the scientific and technological foundations for the transition. Through the federal government’s procurement and sponsored construction contracts, the carbon black industry was able to apply its industrial research discoveries to transform its business model to high efficiency production in the context of economic growth and expansion of natural gas pipelines for home heating and cooking in the 1940s.

Science transcends national borders

The US Endless Frontier Act, which recently passed in the Senate as part of the “US Innovation and Competition Act” ([ 1 ][1]), has been lauded by the academic community [e.g., ([ 2 ][2], [ 3 ][3])] for its massive increase in science and technology funding—a proposed total of US$250 billion over the next 5 years ([ 4 ][4]). However, this proposed legislation is not solely about funding science and technology. As J. Mervis explains in his News story “Senate panel backs funding ban on US researchers in Chinese talent programs” (13 May, ), Section 303 of the bill prohibits scholars who participate in China's national talent program from receiving US national funding, serving as the primary applicant in US federal grants, and, “to the extent possible,” being listed on US federal grant applications. Even beyond Section 303, the bill is unequivocally framed as a response to the “China threat,” building on the Cold War rhetoric of space races and iron curtains. The Act intends to set the United States on a path to out-innovate, out-produce, and out-compete China in strategic emerging industries. Healthy competition between prosperous nation-states should be welcomed on the global stage, but the latent Cold War rhetoric is at best misplaced and at worst counterproductive. An extreme competitive focus, in addition to increasing anti-Asian sentiment within the United States ([ 5 ][5]), could stifle scientific and policy collaboration between the United States and China in the face of much larger existential threats, such as global climate change. China and the United States share a multitude of common causes, such as helping the world end poverty, halting biodiversity loss, and promoting peace and development. Rousing nationalistic sentiment at the expense of scientific cooperation may be a fleeting strategy for bipartisanism within the halls of Congress, but in the long run, it is a lose-lose proposition for the planet. The world has witnessed the consequences of politicization associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, with soaring cases and fatalities alongside anti-scientific denialism and increasing anti-Asian sentiment. The politicization of science inherent in the Endless Frontier Act is not a productive path forward. The so-called “endless frontier” that science is said to enable can only be realized if it does not stop at national borders. 1. [↵][6]US Congress, S.1260— United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (2021); [www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1260][7]. 2. [↵][8]“AAU President welcomes reintroduction of ‘Endless Frontier Act’” (2021); [www.aau.edu/newsroom/press-releases/aau-president-welcomes-reintroduction-endless-frontier-act][9]. 3. [↵][10]1. A. DeMarco , “Achieving the endless frontier,” Inside Higher Ed (2021); [www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/03/30/congress-should-support-science-through-proposed-endless-frontier-act-opinion][11]. 4. [↵][12]1. D. E. Sanger, 2. C. Edmondson, 3. D. McCabe, 4. T. Kaplan , “Senate poised to pass huge industrial policy bill to counter China,” New York Times (2021). 5. [↵][13]“Cold War with China is a dangerous and self-defeating strategy” (2021); . [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: #ref-3 [4]: #ref-4 [5]: #ref-5 [6]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [7]: http://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1260 [8]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [9]: http://www.aau.edu/newsroom/press-releases/aau-president-welcomes-reintroduction-endless-frontier-act [10]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text [11]: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/03/30/congress-should-support-science-through-proposed-endless-frontier-act-opinion [12]: #xref-ref-4-1 View reference 4 in text [13]: #xref-ref-5-1 View reference 5 in text

Does partisan conflict affect US innovation?

ABSTRACT This article explores the influence of partisan conflict on innovation using panel data of 48 mainland US states over the period from 1992 to 2013. A novel indicator of the US partisan conflict, first proposed by Professor Marina Azzimonti, is employed. The nonlinear nexus is tested by accommodating cubic polynomial functional forms. Results show that the relationship between partisan conflict and innovation presents an inverted N-shape with two turning points. That is, the effect might change with partisan conflict. To further study the heterogeneous impact of partisan conflict across different economic development levels, this article divides these states into high- and low-income groups. Subsample analysis concludes that the relationship between partisan conflict and innovation is inverted N-shaped in both high- and low-income groups. A comparative analysis of the turning points between these two groups is conducted. The findings contribute to previous studies in identifying the role of partisan conflict in innovation.

Od „Made in China” do „Created in China” – droga Chin do supremacji innowacyjnej

From “Made in China” to “Created in China” – China’s way to innovation supremacy China is not only a country of cheap production (“Made in China”). China is becoming more and more innovative, as evidenced by its growing position in the annual Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking. Over the past decade, China has become an emerging superpower while the economic position of the United States and the European Union has weakened. The purpose of this article is to answer the question of whether the US innovation supremacy becoming the past. The role of China is growing as a result of departing from “Made in China” and illegally obtained technological solutions in favor of innovation and technologically advanced production “Created in China.” Huawei is one of the most innovative companies in the world. The analysis is carried out in the context of the significance of the Thucydides trap in the technological war between the United States and China and the location of changes in the innovativeness of both countries in the aspect of the Kondratiev cycle. Additionally, China may come out stronger from the pandemic that has changed the whole world.

Mergers, Antitrust, and the Interplay of Entrepreneurial Activity and the Investments That Fund it

This paper addresses the potentially negative implications of proposed antitrust legislation on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in general and particularly focuses on the Venture Capitalists (VCs) that fund it. First, it offers a review of how antitrust merger law currently works and how proposed legislative changes to antitrust may threaten the innovative VC-backed ecosystem that has made the United States the center of global innovation across many different industries. Accompanying this review are some empirical observations. Second, recognizing that understanding innovative entrepreneurial activity calls for a deep appreciation of those who back it, the paper provides an overview of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the motivations of VCs. In so doing, it identifies the drivers of entrepreneurial innovation and explain why changes to merger law may threaten these models of facilitating innovative growth-orientated entrepreneurs. Lastly, the paper concludes that changes to merger law may have negative effects on the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem and hinder US innovation.

Braskem concludes $10 M expansion of US Innovation & Technology Center.

Emotion plays an important role in people’s lives. However, the neural mechanism of affective perception is still unclear. In this study, steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) were used to explore information processing speed and interactions among cortical structures involved in affective perception. Pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System were presented either in intact or phase-scrambled form at a fixed frequency, where the induced SSVEPs could be used as a frequency marker of brain activity with high temporal resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. Source estimation methods were used to reconstruct the cortical signals. The information processing of affective images was studied by phase and causal connection analysis in the cortical space to investigate the information processing speed of the local brain region and the dynamic interactions across brain regions. Experimental results showed that affective and semantic perception was accompanied by the acceleration of information processing speed in the ventral pathway. Unpleasant emotions had the fastest information processing speed in the ventral stream compared with pleasant and neutral emotions, including the middle occipital gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus, with a right hemisphere bias. In addition, unpleasant emotions were stronger than pleasant emotions in long-term causal connections in the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, and the direction was from the right hemisphere to the left hemisphere. These results provide unique insights into the cortical activities for affective perception and support the view that unpleasant emotions have priority in information perception in the middle temporal gyrus compared with pleasant and neutral emotions, with a right hemisphere bias.

Foreign Competition and Domestic Innovation: Evidence from US Patents

Manufacturing accounts for more than three-quarters of US corporate patents. The competitive shock to this sector emanating from China’s economic ascent could in theory either augment or stifle US innovation. Using three decades of US patents matched to corporate owners, we quantify how foreign competition affects domestic innovation. Rising import exposure intensifies competitive pressure, reducing sales, profitability, and R&D expenditure at US firms. Accounting for confounding sectoral patenting trends, we find that US patent production declines in sectors facing greater import competition. This adverse effect is larger among initially less profitable and less capital-intensive firms. (JEL F14, L11, L60, O19, O31, O34, P33)

FOREIGN TRADE RELATIONS AND INNOVATION IN THE UNITED STATES

A trend has been identified that reflects a close correlation between the main indicators of US foreign trade and innovation activities carried out in the modern American economy. The article shows the essence of the national innovation system established in the United States and its international significance in the implementation of foreign trade relations of the country in terms of the exchange of scientific and technical information and documentation, the sale of products with a high innovative component, determined by a comparative analysis of relevant indicators. Based on the results of the study noted the positive dynamics of the active foreign trade balance of the USA in the field of exchange of scientific and technical information and documentation, with a high positive balance, the conclusions about the qualitative dominance of the leading industries of the U.S. economy in terms of aggregate innovation and foreign trade activity in ten leading countries of the world.

Innovation institutions and the opioid crisis.

The US has recently—and belatedly—come to recognize opioid addiction as a public health crisis. What has gone mostly unrecognized is the degree to which this crisis is intertwined with US intellectual property law and related elements of US innovation policy. Innovation institutions—the legal arrangements that structure incentives for production and allocation of knowledge goods—encouraged the development and commercialization of addictive painkillers, restricted access to opioid antidotes, and (perhaps most importantly) failed to facilitate investments in alternative, nonaddictive treatments for chronic pain. Although innovation policy does not bear all the blame for the opioid wave that has washed over communities across the country, innovation institutions are bound up in the ongoing epidemic to a degree that so far has gone underappreciated.This article examines the proliferation of opioid use and abuse through the lens of innovation policy, and it envisions ways in which innovation institutions could help to contain the crisis. Along the way, it seeks to derive broader lessons for innovation policy scholarship as well as recommendations for institutional reform. The opioid crisis challenges the conventional understanding of IP law as a trade-off between allocative efficiency and dynamic efficiency; it highlights the potentially pernicious role of IP protection for addictive and habit-forming products; and it exposes deep flaws in the structure of federal subsidies for and regulation of prescription drugs. It also draws attention to the political and cultural factors that contribute to innovation policy failures. Ultimately, the opioid crisis underscores both the urgency and the limits of institutional change in the innovation policy domain.

Global value chains and international pharmaceutical policy.

This paper analyzes ICT diffusion in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since new paradigms emerge in the industry towards precision medicine and fasten the digitalization of health care, it is necessary to measure the changing value system, especially between life science and the IT industry. The global value chain (GVC) concept is used and data are extracted from the Trade in Value Added (TiVa) dataset (June 2015) from the GVC-OECD project on interconnectivity of economics and industry. A number of indicators were selected: Foreign value added share of gross exports, % of ICT imported in chemicals as a final product, either exported or in use in domestic demand. Trade data are analyzed for two industries: chemical industry, including pharmaceuticals, and the ICT industry for a group of countries: USA, Switzerland, France, Germany, UK and Japan. Only 0.5 to 1% of value added embodied in final chemicals and chemical products can be attributed to the ICT industry. An additional analysis shows higher prices of connectivity for services in the USA versus Japan and Germany, on a price index for a basket of broadband services (fixed and wireless, OECD 2013); this may also reflect the open model of US innovation with more transactions. Fast digitalization of life science requires new measures. TiVa dataset is useful for some IT equipment, but not sufficient for all forms of digital economy. The value chain concept is useful for pricing mobile computing in pharmaceuticals, but needs specific data on connectivity. Complementary datasets (e.g. EU KLEMS) can also track ICT investment in chemicals.