This research, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, has significant implications for the design of public support for innovation. Expenditure on basic research, when it helps to stimulate the productive sector, has significant externalities on innovation in private firms – one of the primary justifications for such public intervention. It also provides a framework for considering public policy to promote innovation at all stages of research and development, from basic research to applied research and innovation grants within firms. This project also led to a publication in the journal *Annals of Economics and Statistics*, which received the ADRES award for the best paper published in that journal by young authors.
From Public Labs to Private Firms: The Scale and Channels of Local R&D Spillovers
By introducing a new measure of scientific proximity between private firms and public research groups, and by analysing a multi-billion-euro funding programme for university clusters in France, this article, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics – one of the top five academic journals in economics – provides evidence of a causal link between the local spillover effects of university research and private sector firms.
Reference The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Vol. 140. No. 4.
Presentation
Key Results
The main estimate suggests that every euro spent on university research under this programme generated an additional 0.81 euros in private R&D expenditure. The article also shows that this shock improved the average quality of patents. The article draws on reports produced by the funded clusters, supplemented by data on firm start-ups, labour mobility and public-private partnerships in R&D, to provide evidence on the channels through which these spillovers occur.
Partners
This article is the result of an IPP project funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (DGRI) aimed at assessing the extent of collaboration between academic research in France and the private sector. By combining this assessment with an analysis of the LabEx scheme (laboratories of excellence), which was introduced in France in 2010 with a budget of 1.5 billion euros.