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on Sociology of Economics |
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Issue of 2007‒04‒21
six papers chosen by Jonas Holmström Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration |
| By: | Albert Banal-Estañol; Inés Macho-Stadler |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of monetary rewards on the pattern of research. We build a simple repeated model of a researcher capable to obtain innovative ideas. We analyse how the legal environment affects the allocation of researcher?s time between research and development. Although technology transfer objectives reduce the time spent in research, they might also induce researchers to conduct research that is more basic in nature, contrary to what the ?skewing problem? would presage. We also show that our results hold even if development delays publication. |
| Keywords: | Faculty behaviour, basic vs. applied research |
| JEL: | I23 L21 L31 M13 O31 |
| Date: | 2007–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:693.07&r=sog |
| By: | Carillo, Maria Rosaria; Papagni, Erasmo |
| Abstract: | In this paper we put forward a model of basic research and long-run economic growth in which the incentives of social reward to scientific work may produce increasing returns and multiple equilibria. The state organizes production of new knowledge - a public good that improves firms' technology - with taxes on the private sector. Scientists compete with one another to attain priority over a discovery and be awarded both a real prize and prestige in the scientific community. Also, scientists\ derive job motivation from dedication to science which provides social status. Analysis of the model shows, on the one hand, a low equilibrium where the economy is endowed with a small science sector, researchers have high relative income but low prestige, and competition for discoveries is weak. On the other hand, there is a high equilibrium where the economy has a large science sector, scientists obtain for new findings high prestige but lower relative salaries and, as the effect of creative destruction is strong, there is fierce competition among researchers. Comparative statics shows that if the scientific infrastructure is poor, policies that increase the marginal benefits from a discovery have perverse effects, while policies aimed at improving the selection mechanism of researchers work well. \ The same policies have opposite effects at the high steady state. |
| Keywords: | Social reward; basic research; economic growth |
| JEL: | O40 O30 |
| Date: | 2007–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2776&r=sog |
| By: | DUBOIS, Pierre; HERNANDEZ-PEREZ, Adriana; IVALDI, Marc |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:6271&r=sog |
| By: | John W. Dawson |
| Abstract: | The initial publication of the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index prompted an explosion of empirical research on the institutions-growth relationship. To date, little of this research has appeared in the top economics journals. Subsequently, a number of empirical growth studies using alternative sources of data on institutions have appeared in top journals. This paper explores the two tracks of empirical research on the institutions-growth relationship—one track that recognizes all the relevant literature, and one that seems wanting in that respect. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:07-04&r=sog |
| By: | Roland G. Fryer; Michael Greenstone |
| Abstract: | Until the 1960s, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were practically the only institutions of higher learning open to Blacks in the US. Using nationally representative data files from 1970s and 1990s college attendees, we find that in the 1970s HBCU matriculation was associated with higher wages and an increased probability of graduation, relative to attending a Traditionally White Institution (TWI). By the 1990s, however, there is a wage penalty, resulting in a 20% decline in the relative wages of HBCU graduates between the two decades. We also analyze the College and Beyond's 1976 and 1989 samples of matriculates which allows us to focus on two of the most elite HBCUs. Between the 1970s and 1990s, HBCU students report statistically significant declines in the proportion that would choose the same college again, preparation for getting along with other racial groups, and development of leadership skills, relative to black students in TWIs. On the positive side, HBCU attendees became relatively more likely to be engaged in social, political, and philanthropic activities. The data provide modest support for the possibility that HBCUs' relative decline in wages is partially due to improvements in TWIs' effectiveness at educating blacks. The data contradict a number of other intuitive explanations, including relative decline in pre-college credentials (e.g., SAT scores) of students attending HBCUs and expenditures per student at HBCUs. |
| JEL: | I23 J15 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13036&r=sog |
| By: | Jiménez-Sáez, Fernando (INGENIO (CSIC-UPV)-Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain); Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, Jon Mikel (INGENIO (CSIC-UPV)-Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain); Zofío, José Luis (Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | We rely on efficiency analysis to evaluate the Spanish R&D public policy based on financial incentives, and investigate to what extent this instrument has been able to promote a multidimensional research output mix, contributing to the articulation of a successful Spanish Food Innovation System. Introducing the use of the generalized distance function within DEA techniques, we assess whether this policy has encouraged the creation, strengthening and promotion of efficient public research units, whose activities present a balanced and comprehensive production of complementary research outputs −personnel training, science and technology results, and socio-economic collaboration with the private sector. Characterizing the alternative ways in which the different research units have been participating in the Spanish Food Technology Program, and hence their role within the innovation system, we conclude that R&D policy efforts have not succeeded in orienting research units toward a balanced output research mix due to wrong incentives and the lack of a sustained budget that would enable the consolidation of emerging research units. Furthermore, we observe that the majority of research units channel their efforts toward achieving science-technology results related to publications and submitted patents, instead of increasing socio-economic results that would strengthen the articulation and efficiency of the innovation system. |
| Keywords: | Innovation System Management; Research Efficiency; Data Envelopment Analysis |
| JEL: | C61 D78 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uam:wpaper:200704&r=sog |