ICT, Collaboration, and Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
Wernsdorf Kathrin, Nagler Markus, Watzinger Martin
Research article (journal) | Peer reviewedAbstract
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.
Details about the publication
Journal: Journal of Public Economics
Volume: 211
Article number: 104678
Status: Published
Release year: 2022
Language in which the publication is written: English
Link to the full text: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272722000809
Keywords: ICT, Communication, Knowledge diffusion, Science-based innovation, University-patenting
Authors from the University of Münster
| Watzinger, Martin | Professorship of Economics with a focus on Innovation Economics and Entrepreneurship (Prof. Watzinger) |