The Economic Spillovers from Science

科学的经济溢出效应

基本信息

批准号：
1064220
负责人：
Bruce Weinberg
金额：
$ 33.12万
依托单位：
Ohio State University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2011-04-15 至 2016-03-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1064220&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Economic Spillovers Science

项目摘要

Spending on science is increasingly motivated by the economic spillovers it generates, such as job creation, but there are mixed views of the overall benefits of scientific activities. On the one hand, science research is seen as an economic driver for the communities where it is produced. The successes of Silicon Valley in Northern California, the Route 128 corridor around Boston MA, the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, and the clusters of small tech startups in Austin TX are often attributed to the scientific research produced in these communities. On the other hand, science is often viewed as being primarily "ivory tower," with limited practical value. A quantitative understanding of the economic spillovers from science is critical for policy makers from the state and local levels to the national level seeking to set science-funding levels. Despite this policy interest, there is surprisingly little work quantifying the economic benefits of science. This project provides such estimates, showing what results we should expect from science and research spending in cities across the nation.In addition to leading directly to valuable inventions, scientific activity is believed to raise productivity in the communities where it is performed. This project focuses on these productivity spillovers. Our understanding of these economic spillovers from science is not very good yet, at least in part because there are three significant challenges to estimating the spillover benefits of science. Specifically:(1) Cities like Boston and San Francisco, where a large amount of research is performed, may be inherently different from cities with a small amount of research. Such differences are likely to lead researchers to misstate the spillover benefits from science, attributing to "science in the city" what is really attributable to the city itself. (2) The typical person living in a city with a lot of scientific activity may be more productive than the typical person in other cities. For instance, a large amount of science is produced by universities, which clearly generate skills for their students and may attract highly productive workers. Such differences would tend to lead researchers to overstate the spillover benefits of science.(3) If research raises productivity in a city, it would be natural to expect workers to move to that city and for the city to expand. An inflow of workers to cities with more scientific activity but not more jobs will depress wages, however, leading researchers to understate the spillovers from science.This project includes all of these effects in estimating the economic spillovers from science. We relate wages, real-estate prices, and other important economic outcomes in a city to measures of scientific activity there. We exploit a wide range of strategies to address all three of the challenges that have frustrated previous research, including developing a general framework in which they can be addressed. We will also produce rich data on scientific activity that will be available for future research. Broader ImpactsThese estimates will help policymakers value the economic benefits generated by science to fine-tune science investments. The project will specifically determine how scientific activity affects underrepresented groups based on gender, race, ethnicity, and age. The strategy developed under this project can also be applied to estimate the benefits of science stimulus spending and evaluate which expenditures produced the most benefits.

科学支出越来越受到其产生的经济溢出效应（例如创造就业机会）的推动，但对于科学活动的总体效益，人们的看法不一。一方面，科学研究被视为其所在社区的经济驱动力。北加州的硅谷、马萨诸塞州波士顿周围的 128 号公路走廊、北卡罗来纳州的三角研究园以及德克萨斯州奥斯汀的小型科技初创企业集群的成功往往归功于这些社区的科学研究。另一方面，科学通常被视为主要是“象牙塔”，实用价值有限。对于从州和地方各级到国家一级寻求设定科学资助水平的政策制定者来说，定量了解科学的经济溢出效应至关重要。尽管存在这种政策兴趣，但令人惊讶的是，量化科学经济效益的工作却很少。该项目提供了这样的估计，显示了我们应该从全国城市的科学研究支出中获得什么结果。除了直接带来有价值的发明之外，科学活动还被认为可以提高其所在社区的生产力。该项目重点关注这些生产力溢出效应。我们对科学带来的这些经济溢出效应的理解还不是很好，至少部分是因为估计科学的溢出效益面临三个重大挑战。具体来说：（1）波士顿、旧金山等研究量大的城市可能与研究量小的城市有本质上的不同。这种差异可能会导致研究人员错误地表述科学的溢出效益，将真正归因于城市本身的归因于“城市中的科学”。 (2) 生活在科学活动频繁的城市的典型人可能比其他城市的典型人更有生产力。例如，大量的科学成果是由大学产生的，它们显然可以为学生创造技能，并可能吸引高生产力的工人。这种差异往往会导致研究人员夸大科学的溢出效益。(3) 如果研究提高了一个城市的生产力，那么人们很自然地会期望工人迁移到该城市并促进该城市的扩张。然而，工人流入科学活动较多但就业机会不多的城市将会压低工资，导致研究人员低估科学的溢出效应。该项目在估计科学的经济溢出效应时考虑了所有这些影响。我们将城市的工资、房地产价格和其他重要经济成果与当地科学活动的衡量标准联系起来。我们利用广泛的策略来解决阻碍先前研究的所有三个挑战，包括开发一个可以解决这些挑战的总体框架。我们还将生成丰富的科学活动数据，供未来研究使用。更广泛的影响这些估计将帮助政策制定者评估科学产生的经济效益，从而调整科学投资。该项目将根据性别、种族、民族和年龄具体确定科学活动如何影响代表性不足的群体。该项目下制定的策略还可用于估计科学刺激支出的效益，并评估哪些支出产生最大效益。