nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2023‒11‒06
three papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström, Axventure AB


  1. How Patent Rights Affect University Science By Laurent R. Bergé; Thorsten Doherr; Katrin Hussinger
  2. Developing science and technology – the role of Big Tech By Damásio, Bruno; Mendonça, Sandro; Silva, Eduardo
  3. Predicting Replication Rates with Z-Curve: A Brief Exploratory Validation Study Using the Replication Database By Röseler, Lukas

  1. By: Laurent R. Bergé (Université de Bordeaux); Thorsten Doherr (ZEW, Centre for European Economic Research); Katrin Hussinger (Université du Luxembourg)
    Abstract: How do intellectual property rights influence academic science? We investigate the consequences of the introduction of software patents in the U.S. on the publications of university researchers in the field of computer science. Difference-indifference estimations reveal that software scientists at U.S. universities produced fewer publications (both in terms of quantity and quality) than their European counterparts after patent rights for software inventions were introduced. We then introduce a theoretical model that accounts for substitution and complementarity between patenting and publishing as well as for the direction of research. In line with the model’s prediction, further results show that the decrease in publications is largest for scientists at the bottom of the ability distribution. Further, we evidence a change in the direction of research following the reform towards more applied research.
    Keywords: patent rights, publications, economics of science, difference-indifference, estimation, model of science production.
    JEL: I23 O31 O34 O38 L38
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:22-08&r=sog
  2. By: Damásio, Bruno; Mendonça, Sandro; Silva, Eduardo
    Abstract: This work aims to conduct a scientometric study on the research published by digital platforms known as Big Tech (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Netflix), giving an overview of the publications' growth, distribution by document's types, research themes and affiliations' profile. All data was retrieved from the Scopus' database, only publications in English and that had an associated DOI (digital object identifier) were considered. Given Big Tech's financial and development strategies, they are present in many markets outside their core activity, enabling them to be at the forefront in innovation. Hence, Big Tech invest in research related activities such as scientific publishing, showing a great surge in their levels of publications from 2015 onwards. "Computer Science" is the most popular journal subject area in which they tend to publish. In the publications' authorship there were no outstanding international partnerships found, with the Big Tech companies' researchers being the main authors, nonetheless a propensity to work with universities was identified. These results help to profile Big Tech's research activity,
    Keywords: Big Tech, research, scientometric, publication, digital platforms
    Date: 2023
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itse23:277951&r=sog
  3. By: Röseler, Lukas (University of Bamberg)
    Abstract: Concerns of replicability are widespread in the social sciences. As it is not feasible to replicate every published study, researchers have been developing methods to estimate replicability. I used the Replication Database (Röseler et al., 2023) to compare actual replication rates with replicability estimates provided by z-curve. After drawing stratified samples with actual replication rates that were uniformly distributed, z-curve’s replicability estimates had lower variance but correlated strongly with actual replicability rates, r = .933. Using a linear model, predicted replication rates deviated from actual replication rates by <±16% when samples from 322 studies (2.5 and 97.5% quantiles) were drawn. I propose that z-curve is a valid and economic method to compare replicability estimates for large sets of studies. Future studies of moderators in the context of z-curve or replicability should be tested using replication databases. The study’s code and data are available online (https://osf.io/k4d6w/).
    Date: 2023–10–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:metaar:ewb2t&r=sog

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