ICT, Collaboration, and Innovation: Evidence from BITNET

Wernsdorf Kathrin, Nagler Markus, Watzinger Martin


Zusammenfassung

Does access to technologies that reduce information and communication costs increase innovation? We examine this question by exploiting the staggered adoption of BITNET across U.S. universities in the 1980s. BITNET, an early version of the Internet, enabled e-mail-based knowledge exchange and collaboration among academics. After the adoption of BITNET, university-connected inventors increase patenting substantially. The effects are driven by collaborative patents by new inventor teams. The patents induced by ICT are closely related to science. In contrast, we neither find an effect on patents not closely related to science nor on corporate inventors unconnected to universities.

Schlüsselwörter
ICT, Communication, Knowledge diffusion, Science-based innovation, University-patenting



Publikationstyp
Forschungsartikel (Zeitschrift)

Begutachtet
Ja

Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht

Jahr
2022

Fachzeitschrift
Journal of Public Economics

Band
211

Sprache
Englisch

ISSN
0047-2727

DOI

Gesamter Text