Michael S. Fogarty

Universities and the Startup of New Companies: Can We Generalize from Route 128 and Silicon Valley?

In order to increase the commercialization of basic research, policymakers have tried to foster closer ties between university research and industry R&D. To empirically test whether there is a link between commercialization and university research, this paper models firm startups during 1976-78 for six two-digit manufacturing industries located in twenty-five metropolitan areas. The findings are mixed: the relationship between university research and firm births in the electrical and electronic equipment industries (SIC 36) is positive and statistically significant, while in the instruments and related industries (SIC 38) the relationship is statistically insignificant. Copyright 1993 by MIT Press.

The Role of Labor Costs in Regional Capital Formation

High labor costs in large Midwestern metropolitan areas have significantly reduced their manufacturing capital stock. For the period 1974 to 1978, the authors estimate that sixteen metropolitan areas in the Midwest, taken together, had approximately

Knowledge Spillovers and Patent Citations: Evidence from a Survey of Inventors

2.8 billion less capital stock than they would have had if their labor costs had been at the national average. This difference is equal to 4 percent of the capital stock in these areas. The results are simulated from the estimation of a labor demand equation that is derived from a generalized Leontief cost function. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.