American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Understanding the Changing Structure of Scientific Inquiry
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 8,
no. 1, January 2016
(pp. 100–128)
Abstract
The fall of the Iron Curtain led to an influx of new mathematical ideas into western science. We show that research teams grew disproportionately in size in subfields of mathematics in which the Soviets were strongest. This is consistent with the knowledge burden hypothesis that an outward shift in the knowledge frontier increases the returns to collaboration. We also report additional evidence consistent with this interpretation: (i) The effect is present in countries outside the United States and is not correlated with the local population of Soviet scholars, (ii) Researchers in Soviet-rich subfields disproportionately increased their level of specialization. (JEL I23, O31, O33, P36)Citation
Agrawal, Ajay, Avi Goldfarb, and Florenta Teodoridis. 2016. "Understanding the Changing Structure of Scientific Inquiry." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 8 (1): 100–128. DOI: 10.1257/app.20140135Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
- O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
- O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
- P36 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty
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