Veranstaltungen

PR-Netzwerktreffen der Kommunikator*innen der Max-Planck-Institute der Region München zum Austausch über den A-HA Science Communication Hub.

Cancer is a leading cause of death in developed countries, and cancer treatments are the top category of pharmaceutical spending in the United States and Europe. This paper assesses (1) whether the use of novel cancer therapies are associated with a reduction in mortality, and (2) the cost per statistical life year saved. Using panel data from 28 countries, we study the relationship between mortality attributed to a specific cancer site and the use of pharmaceutical treatments approved to treat that site. The cross-country and cross-site variation over time allows us to isolate the decline in mortality attributable to new drugs from that due to changes in lifestyle and environmental factors, and we distinguish between the effects of treatments based on their evaluated therapeutic benefits by an important health technology assessor. We correct for the endogeneity of mortality and the availability of new treatments using instrumental variables. On average, our results show a decline in mortality associated with the use of innovative treatments for a cancer site. The gains vary across countries and cancer sites. (Joint work with Pierre Dubois)

Ansprechpartnerin: Elisabeth Hofmeister

Eintragung in den Einladungsverteiler und mehr Informationen auf der Seminarseite.

Like physical products, new technologies are developed using globally sourced inputs. But while the supply chains behind physical goods are well understood, we know far less about the international ”supply chain” of scientifi c knowledge that powers U.S. innovation—and how vulnerable it may be to disruption. Here, I uncover the structure of the U.S. knowledge supply chain by tracing multi-generational citation paths that connect NSF-funded research to downstream patents, and assess its fragility by simulating barriers that impede the fl ow of scientifi c knowledge across the U.S. border. The results reveal that U.S. innovation is deeply reliant on foreign science: 56% of the intermediary papers linking NSF research to patents are produced outside the United States. Cross-border restrictions reduce the connectivity of these paths, increase their length, and lower innovation productivity, as measured by the U.S. patent-to-publication ratio. Most consequentially, such restrictions strand promising knowledge trajectories outside the U.S.: I estimate there are 104,149 NSF-stimulated paths currently under development outside the U.S. Under the status quo, 67,965 are projected to return to the U.S. for patenting. However, under scientifi c autarky, virtually none would, representing a loss of approximately $10.7 billion in invested capital. These impacts also affect U.S. fi rms that are critical to national priorities, including innovation, energy, and security. For example, autarky reduces outstanding path capture at Microsoft, ExxonMobil, and Lockheed Martin by between 48% and 57%.

Ansprechpartner: Daehyun Kim

Eintragung in den Einladungsverteiler und mehr Informationen auf der Seminarseite.

Generative AI and Community Norms in a User-Generated Media Commons: Evidence from Archive of Our Own
Presenter: Denzel Glandel (ISTO)
Discussant: Christian Untch (TUM)

Advances in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) enable the large-scale production of creative content, raising questions about how algorithmically assisted works are received in community-governed digital markets. Prior research finds negative reactions to algorithm-created products, but it remains unclear how such reactions operate when production and evaluation are embedded in strong social-norm environments. I study Archive of Our Own (AO3), a fanfiction platform characterized by a gift economy and voluntary disclosure of GenAI use. Using story-level and author-level data on reader attention and feedback, I distinguish between exposure and conditional evaluation. The results show that GenAI disclosure has little effect on exposure but is associated with lower appreciation and reduced conversational engagement. These effects depend on the type of GenAI usage, and are stronger in fandoms with higher baseline feedback intensity. The findings extend research on algorithm valuation by highlighting the role of informal community governance in the responses to GenAI-produced content.

Access to the Frontier: Open Source AI and Downstream Innovation
Presenter: Dominik Asam (MPI)
Discussant: Svenja Friess (ISTO)
 

How does open sourcing a frontier AI model affect downstream innovation? I provide empirical evidence on the effect of shifting from a closed to an open frontier on subsequent AI development by studying the leak of Meta’s Llama model in early 2023. I find that Llama lowered entry barriers and led to a massive surge in new models without compromising average perceived utility. The increase in model creation is almost entirely driven by new entrants, who show similar experience characteristics to incumbents. This suggests that the previous dominance of closed models imposed technological entry barriers that left a large pool of skilled contributors untapped. An analysis of incumbents’ reactions to Llama shows that ex ante exposed contributors pivot away from Llama-affected domains towards unaffected fields, indicating a strategic reallocation of innovative effort. Overall, the results emphasize the importance of open source AI as a platform for experimentation and innovation.

Why Is It Still So Difficult? – A Multilevel Analysis Of Barriers To Commercializing Radical Innovations In Large Companies.
Presenter: Tim Hahne (TUM)
Discussant: Johannes Könemann (MPI)

Although widely recognized as being of fundamental importance, practice shows that especially large firms still face significant challenges in developing radical innovations in systematic and reliable ways. Particularly the commercialization phase constitutes substantial difficulties. This contradicts previous research, which has established such commercialization as relatively easy task for large firms due to high levels of resource and network availability. To investigate this phenomenon, we conducted a qualitative case study with our case company being a multinational top-player in the industrial IT sector. In total, we combine data from 14 months of participant observation, 32 semi-structured interviews and a wide variety of archival data. As a result, we propose a model of the three fundamental barriers to commercialization success of radical innovations in large, incumbent companies, and how these barriers interact: First, separation during exploration and incubation is beneficial. Yet, firms struggle with separate commercialization efforts, leaving them with the essential challenge of reintegration into their established business. Second, even if reintegrated, the potential to commercialize radical innovations is limited, if the distribution imbalance of commercialization resources between achieving short-term goals and long-term development of innovations remains unresolved. Finally, too rigid organizational structures prevent the exploration of required new commercialization strategies.

Ansprechpartnerin: Elisabeth Hofmeister

Programm als pdf

How novel ideas are adopted and recognized is crucial to scientific progress, but not all ideas from all groups are equally recognized. This paper studies whether and how increasing gender diversity at universities may lead to greater inclusion and recognition of research traditionally associated with women. Leveraging the transitions to coeducation of 76 all-male universities and novel text-based measures of research content, we show that coeducation led to overall modest shifts toward female-associated research. This aggregate effect masks substantial heterogeneity across fields: in disciplines with higher early female representation, we observe a pronounced increase in female-associated research driven by both existing faculty and new entrants. Male-dominated fields, by contrast, exhibit little change or even declines in female-associated research, primarily due to changes in hiring practices. These findings highlight that while diversity can foster innovation, its effects may only be concentrated in areas already receptive to the new perspectives. (joint work with Drew Hendrickson and Ashley Wong)

Ansprechpartnerin: Marina Chugunova

Eintragung in den Einladungsverteiler und mehr Informationen auf der Seminarseite.

On 15/16 December 2025, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition will host the 8^th Research on Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship Workshop (RISE8), an annual workshop for Ph.D. students and Junior Postdocs in Economics and Management. 

The goal of the RISE8 Workshop is to stimulate an in-depth discussion of a select number of empirical research papers. It offers Ph.D. students and Junior Postdocs an opportunity to present their work and to receive feedback.

Keynote speaker of the RISE8 Workshop is Matt Marx (Cornell University)

Program RISE8 2025

For more information see RISE Workshop.

How does big data change the search for innovation? Data-driven predictions can identify promising opportunities even when their underlying mechanisms are not understood. This has raised concerns that decoupling innovation from theoretical understanding weakens incentives to develop new theory and yields findings whose consequences are poorly understood. In this paper, I argue that big data can instead catalyze the generation of new theory. Data-driven search broadens the space of combinations explored and increases the variability in outcomes relative to the filtering provided by existing theory. As a result, this search strategy uncovers more empirical anomalies that stimulate, rather than substitute, new theorizing. I test these ideas in the domain of human genetics, where genome-wide association studies (GWAS) operate as a data-driven search for the genetic roots of disease. Compared with traditional theory-based approaches, GWAS introduce gene–disease combinations that span a wider portion of the genetic landscape, more frequently fall at both extremes of scientific quality, and often defy expectations drawn from prior knowledge. Rather than crowding out theory generation, GWAS findings are followed by a surge of research aimed at clarifying their causal mechanisms. Together, the results reveal a complementarity between theory and data in search, suggesting that big data can fuel virtuous cycles of theorizing by accelerating the identification of anomalies.

Ansprechpartner: Daehyun Kim

Eintragung in den Einladungsverteiler und mehr Informationen auf der Seminarseite.

Most innovation occurs inside firms, yet little is known about the organizational forces that shape it. We provide new evidence on how private information affects within-firm innovation using unique data from a global manufacturing firm tracking more than 200,000 workers’ ideas from invention to commercialization. Workers face incentives to inflate idea quantity at year-end to improve evaluations and pay, but these incentives generate substantially lower-quality ideas, consistent with moral hazard. Using quasi-random rotations in direct supervisors, we show that managers with invention experience increase both the quantity and quality of their new teams’ innovative output, indicating that such managers help firms screen ideas when workers hold private information. Complementary evidence from a survey of 1,659 firms suggests these patterns are widespread: firms with greater information asymmetry report more moral hazard and rely more heavily on managers for screening. Together, the results highlight private information as a key constraint on incentives for innovation.

Ansprechpartnerin: Marina Chugunova

Eintragung in den Einladungsverteiler und mehr Informationen auf der Seminarseite.

Dr. Georg Werner (Vorsitzender Richter am Landgericht München I) und Prof. Dr. Peter Picht, LL.M. (Yale) (Universität Zürich) 

Herzog-Max-Str. 4, 80333 München

Gemeinsame Veranstaltung des Max-Planck-Instituts für Innovation und Wettbewerb und des Vereins Freunde und ehemalige Mitarbeiter des Max-Planck-Instituts für Innovation und Wettbewerb e.V.

Anmeldung: alumni@ip.mpg.de