Nathan Rosenberg

American Universities and Technical Advance in Industry

Explores the role of American universities in research that impacts industry. To begin, the history of academic research is presented in order to better understand the relationship that has existed between academia and industry. In early American universities, the focus was on vocational skills for a wide range of professions that would aid local economies in areas such as agriculture and forest products. The first half of the twentieth century saw the institutionalization of the new engineering and applied science disciplines. During World War II, academic researchers aided in electronic advances which helped in the military efforts and saved many lives. This work helped academic researchers gain the respect of government officials and led to the emergence of federal funding for academic research. This funding shifted university focus from helping local industry to considering problems associated with health and defense. Universities have also built stronger links with industry. Universities were presumed to conduct the basic research while industry was focused on improving existing products and processes. Two recent studies confirm that academic research contributes more to the R of R&D (research and development) while industry does more of the D. New public policies are needed to address this division of labor that has arisen between universities and industry, and that reflect an understanding of the continued need for federal funds to support basic research that strengthens industry over the longer term. (SRD)

The influence of market demand upon innovation: A critical review of some recent empirical studies

A number of recent empirical studies of technical change at the level of the individual firm have concluded that market demand is the dominant influence upon the innova tion process, “calling forth” innovations in market economies. The pace of innovation in the private sector heavily influences the growth of national output and productivity, and these studies and their conclusions have therefore received much attention, having been extensively quo ted in discussions of appropriate government policy for the encouragement of innovation. This paper reviews a number of these studies and concludes that their findings, and the interpretations of their findings in the secondary literature, are seriously flawed and, in many cases, invalid. The proposition that market demand governs the innovation process is by no means conclusively demonstrated in these studies, and they are therefore inadequate and inappropriate guides for the formulation of policy. Most of the studies examined employ a working definition of “demand fat tars” which is so broad as to embrace a range of possible influences upon innovation which should more properly be classified elsewhere. The concep t of demand utilized in these studies bears little resemblance to the more restrictive and precise definition of market demand found in economics. In addition, the phenomena analyzed in these studies are a very heterogeneous lot; the studies do not address iden tical empirical questions, and their findings are, as a result, neither uniform nor unambiguous. Both demand and supply side influences are crucial to understanding the innovation process, and it is the exclusive preoccupation with only one set of these forces which is criticized in this paper. Some implications of the criticism for government policy toward innovation are discussed in the conclusion.

Why do firms do basic research (with their own money)

AbstractThe question to be addressed is: Why do private firms perform basic research with their own money? Interest in this question derives from both analytical and utilitarian considerations. There is empirical evidence in the United States, which provides the main context for this paper. Supporting the view that basic research makes a significant contribution to the productivity growth of the economy [4,7]. It is widely held that social returns from basic research are significant and higher than private returns and it is for this reason that most such activities continue to be financed by the taxpayer. This also implies that measures aimed at increasing basic research by the private sector will be welfare improving. In the United States, the federal government in the years since the Second World War has provided the vast majority of all funds devoted to basic research. Although the federal share has been declining in recent years, and although that share is at its lowest level in about 20 years, it still constitutes about two-thirds of the total [10]…

How the West grew rich : the economic transformation of the industrial world

* Introduction * The Starting Point: The Middle Ages * The Growth of Trade to 1750 * The Evolution of Institutions Favorable to Commerce * The Development of Industry: 17501880 * Diversity of Organization: The Corporation * Technology, Trusts, and Marketable Stock * The Link Between Science and Wealth * Diversity of Enterprise * Implications and Comparison

Technological Change in the Machine Tool Industry, 1840–1910

Technological change has come to absorb an increasing share of the attention of the economist in recent years. Several attempts have been made to assess the quantitative importance of technological change, as opposed to increases in factor supplies, in accounting for the secular rise in per capita incomes in the United States. It appears, in all these studies, that technological changes (shifts in the production function) have been far more important than has the mere growth in the supplies of capital and labor inputs, as conventionally measured (movement along an existing production function). In a sense, this should be cause for deep concern, since the comparative neglect of the process of technological change (with the major exceptions until very recent years, of the works of Marx, Schumpeter, and Usher) suggests a serious malallocation of our intellectual resources. If the studies of such people as Abramovitz and Solow are even approximately correct with respect to orders of magnitude, then the contribution of technological change to rising per capita incomes absolutely dwarfs the contribution from a rising but qualitatively unchanging stock of capital. It would appear that we have indeed been playing Hamlet without the Prince.

The Direction of Technological Change: Inducement Mechanisms and Focusing Devices

Introduction One of the things which is perfectly obvious about societies which have achieved high degrees of industrialization is that they have acquired unusual skills in problem-solving activities. Industrial societies have learned how to solve certain kinds of problems, and understanding this creative capacity is basic to an understanding of the growth process. What is less obvious, however, is that the developed countries never solve more than a small fraction of the problems they are capable of solving. Rather, they solve some fraction of the problems which happen to be formulated and actively pursued. This

Uncertainty and Technological Change

AbstractThe following sections are included:Some Historical PerspectivesDimensions of UncertaintyReviving Old Technologies—or Killing Them OffConclusion

Designing Efficient Institutions for Science-Based Entrepreneurship: Lessons from the US and Sweden

The recent ‘scientification’ of commercial technology has brought the interface between universities and industry into sharp focus. In particular, academic entrepreneurship, i.e., the variety of ways in which academics take direct part in the commercialization of research, is widely discussed. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a framework for identifying the strategic individual decisions involved when educational choice is translated into science-based entrepreneurship. Identifying these decisions also allows us to hypothesize what incentive structures should be crucial. Our suggested framework is informally tested by an in-depth examination of the experiences of Sweden and the US. Despite large levels of R&D spending and comprehensive government support schemes, science-based entrepreneurship has been far less important in Sweden compared to the US. Our analysis points to weaknesses in the Swedish incentive structure in key respects: the rate of return to human capital investment, incentives to become an entrepreneur and to expand existing businesses, and insufficient incentives within the university system to adjust curricula and research budgets to outside demand. Several policy measures during the 1990s have reduced the weaknesses in the Swedish incentive structure. The current emergence of a more vibrant entrepreneurial culture in Sweden in some areas is consistent with these changes. Our analysis suggests that a policy aimed at encouraging science-based entrepreneurship should focus on strengthening individual incentives for human capital investment and entrepreneurial behavior both within universities and in business.

A General-Purpose Technology at Work: The Corliss Steam Engine in the Late- Nineteenth-Century United States

The contribution to growth from the steam engine—Industrial Revolution icon and prime example of a “General Purpose Technology”—has remained unclear. This article examines the role that a particular design improvement in steam power, embodied in the Corliss engine, played in the growth of the U.S. economy in the late nineteenth century. Using detailed data on the location of Corliss engines and waterwheels and a two-stage estimation strategy, we show that the deployment of Corliss engines served as a catalyst for the industrys massive relocation into large urban centers, thus fueling agglomeration economies and further population growth.

Economic Development and the Transfer of Technology: Some Historical Perspectives

AbstractBack in an earlier, more naive day, we managed to allow ourselves to believe that there was a purely technological solution–a cheap “technological fix” –to the problems of poverty and economic backwardness which beset most of the human race. In the Point Four of his 1949 inaugural address President Truman spoke optimistically of the incalculable benefits which technical assistance could bring to improving the desperate plight of the poor throughout the world “We must embark,” he said, “on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.”…