Labex Project - Institute of Public Policies

Context

Many technologies are based on scientific principles developed by university laboratories or using public funds (such as the laser, GPS, or, more recently, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine). Nevertheless, the impact of public research funding on businesses has been little documented in a systematic manner. This is due in particular to the difficulty of identifying the businesses likely to benefit from university research carried out on a given subject.

Presentation

This project develops a new measure of scientific proximity between research laboratories and companies, based on their sectoral affiliation, by comparing the laboratories’ bibliographies with the research articles cited in patents. We then develop two applications of this proximity measure. Firstly, we apply this measure to all French laboratories, focusing on the geographical concentration of companies that are scientifically close to them in the vicinity of these laboratories. Secondly, we apply this measure to the LabEx projects, which have been funded since 2010 to the tune of one and a half billion euros. In this way, we measure the programme’s effects on companies that are scientifically closely aligned with the successful laboratories, and explore the channels through which knowledge is disseminated.

Research Team

This project is led by the pole Firms.

Antonin Bergeaud

Arthur Guillouzouic

Émeric Henry

Clément Malgouyres

Publication

The project has also been the subject of two academic publications:

‘From Public Labs to Private Firms: Magnitude and Channels of R&D Spillovers’. Bergeaud, Antonin, Arthur Guillouzouic, Emeric Henry and Clément Malgouyres (2022). CEPR Discussion Paper No. 17487.
‘Proximity of Firms to Scientific Production’. Bergeaud, Antonin, Arthur Guillouzouic, Emeric Henry and Clément Malgouyres (2022).

Context

Presentation

Research Team

Publication

Partners