TY - CHAP
T1 - The changing structure of American innovation
T2 - Some cautionary remarks for economic growth
AU - Arora, Ashish
AU - Belenzon, Sharon
AU - Patacconi, Andrea
AU - Suh, Jungkyu
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - A defining feature of modern economic growth is the systematic application of science to advance technology. However, despite sustained progress in scientific knowledge, recent productivity growth in the United States has been disappointing. We review major changes in the American innovation ecosystem over the past century. The past three decades have been marked by a growing division of labor between universities focusing on research and large corporations focusing on development. Knowledge produced by universities is not often in a form that can be readily digested and turned into new goods and services. Small firms and university technology transfer offices cannot fully substitute for corporate research, which had previously integrated multiple disciplines at the scale required to solve significant technical problems. Therefore, whereas the division of innovative labor may have raised the volume of science by universities, it has also slowed, at least for a period of time, the transformation of that knowledge into novel products and processes.
AB - A defining feature of modern economic growth is the systematic application of science to advance technology. However, despite sustained progress in scientific knowledge, recent productivity growth in the United States has been disappointing. We review major changes in the American innovation ecosystem over the past century. The past three decades have been marked by a growing division of labor between universities focusing on research and large corporations focusing on development. Knowledge produced by universities is not often in a form that can be readily digested and turned into new goods and services. Small firms and university technology transfer offices cannot fully substitute for corporate research, which had previously integrated multiple disciplines at the scale required to solve significant technical problems. Therefore, whereas the division of innovative labor may have raised the volume of science by universities, it has also slowed, at least for a period of time, the transformation of that knowledge into novel products and processes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077013384&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/705638
DO - 10.1086/705638
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85077013384
T3 - Innovation Policy and the Economy
SP - 39
EP - 93
BT - Innovation Policy and the Economy
PB - University of Chicago Press
ER -
