Veranstaltungen

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum 313

How important is information disclosure through patents for subsequent innovation? To answer this question, we examine the expansion of the USPTO Patent Library system after 1975. Before the Internet, patent libraries gave inventors access to patent documents. We find that after patent library opening, local patenting increases by 17% relative to control regions. Additional analyses suggest that the disclosure of technical information is the mechanism underlying this effect: inventors start to cite more distant prior art and the effect ceases after the introduction of the Internet. Our analyses thus provide evidence that disclosure plays an important role in cumulative innovation.

Ansprechpartner: Michael E. Rose, Ph.D.

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum 313

Ansprechpartner: Michael E. Rose, Ph.D.

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, Marstallplatz 1, München, Raum 101

Moderation: Laura Valtere

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum 313

Ansprechpartner: Michael Rose, Ph.D.

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum 313

In most organizations, promotions often requires self-nomination and entry into competition. However, research on gender differences in self-promotion and preference for competition suggests that this “opt-in” process might result in fewer women choosing to compete. We study whether changing promotion schemes from a default where applicants must opt in (i.e., self-nominate) to a default where applicants must opt out (i.e., those who pass a qualification threshold are automatically considered for promotion, but can choose not to be considered) will attenuate gender differences. In our first experiment, although women are less likely than men to choose competitive environments under the traditional opt-in framing, there is no gender difference when the choice to compete is described using opt-out framing. The increase in participation of women into competition is not associated with negative consequences for performance or well-being. Further, in our second experiment we show that opt-out framing does not entail penalties from evaluators making decisions about whom to hire. These results suggest that organizations could make use of “opt-out” promotion schemes as a behavioral intervention to reduce the gender gap in promotion rates and ascension to leadership positions. More generally, our study provides additional support to the promise of choice architecture to reduce disparities in organizations.

Ansprechpartner: Dr. Marina Chugunova

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum 313

We study decision making by graduate students and entrepreneurship program participants in a variety of individual and group settings. Nascent and current entrepreneurs differ from non-entrepreneurs along several dimensions. Nascent entrepreneurs are more trustworthy than non-entrepreneurs and current entrepreneurs, and are also more likely to be overconfident. While current and nascent entrepreneurs are no more likely to choose competitive pay schemes than others, they react to competition by performing better. Current and nascent entrepreneurs are less cooperative, more patient, and more honest than non-entrepreneurs. Nascent entrepreneurs are surprisingly different than current entrepreneurs, including being far more likely to be women.

Ansprechpartner: Dr. Marina Chugunova

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum 313

I examine the impact of a funding shock caused by the 16-day long U.S. Federal Government shutdown in 2013 on scientific research. The timing of the government shutdown coincided with the beginning of the Arctic summer, which is the crucial albeit short period for researchers to set up their experiments and measurements in the Antarctic. This means that although the shutdown lasted for only slightly more than two weeks, its timing substantially magnified its effect on federally funded research in the Antarctic. I use information on specific research projects in the Antarctic funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that were critically affected by the shutdown: projects were either cancelled in their entirety, their start substantially delayed, often by at least an entire year, or they lost a substantial amount of data because no measurements could be taken during the year following the shutdown. My ability to identify specific projects and the individual scientists affected by the shutdown allows me to identify the causal impact of a large, exogenous funding shock on research outcomes and career trajectories of individual scientists.

Ansprechpartner: Dr. Fabian Gaessler

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum E10

Peer Recommendations, Consumption Variety, and Product Performance: Evidence from a Digital Music Platform

Referent: Johannes Loh (ISTO)

Approximating the Standard Essentiality of Patents – A Semantics-Based Analysis

Referent: Lorenz Brachtendorf (Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb)

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, München, Raum 313

Multiple institutional affiliations occur when an academic belongs to more than one organisation. We document an increase in multiple institutional affiliations listed by authors on scientific publications based on an analysis of more than 2.5 million publications from OECD countries (plus selected countries such as China) during the 1996-2018 period. Furthermore, we find that the increase in the share of articles with multiple affiliations is more pronounced in countries that have implemented some form of Excellence Initiative (ExIn). Publication-author-level difference-in-differences analyses show that the probability of authors listing multiple affiliations after the implementation is between 1.3 (Japan) and 10 (France) percent higher than in countries without Excellence Initiatives. Evidence on roles and motivations behind these arrangements is mainly anecdotal. We argue that multiple affiliations may present a new model for competitive edge in the highly contested research market. Reporting results from an international survey on academics in three major science nations (the UK, Germany and Japan), we find that multiple affiliations are widespread across disciplines and are used to increase access to resources, networks or know-how. Junior academics also use them to increase job prospects and income, indicative of the precarious employment conditions they may find themselves in. Additional affiliations do not seem to be a source of conflict for mid-career and senior researchers, but junior researchers may face time and other work-related conflicts due to the additional commitment. The majority of additional affiliations build on personal contacts, but institutions also proactively shape the organisational links of their staff.

Ansprechpartner: Michael Rose, Ph.D.

Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, Raum E10

Moderation: Ansgar Glatt