Kathrin Wernsdorf, M.Sc.
Doctoral Student and Junior Research Fellow
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research
+49 89 24246-582
kathrin.wernsdorf(at)ip.mpg.de
Areas of Interest:
Economics of Innovation, Economics of Science, Digitalization, Labor Mobility
Academic Résumé
Since 10/2019
Junior Research Fellow at Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research)
Doctoral Candidate at the LMU Munich Graduate School of Economics, Graduate Programme ‘Evidence-Based Economics’
08/2018 - 10/2018
Internship, Deutsche Bundesbank (Department: Financial Stability), Frankfurt am Main
01/2018 - 01/2019
Research Assistant, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research)
10/2017 - 09/2019
Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Economics, LMU Munich
06/2016 - 08/2016
Internship, Barclays Bank (Department: Risk Analytics), London
03/2015
Spring Insight Programme, Barclays Bank, London
09/2014 - 06/2017
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Economics, University of Mannheim
Honors, Scholarships, Academic Prizes
03/2021
Selected participant in the NBER Digitization Tutorial
09/2020
Nomination for EPIP 2020 Young Scholar Award in Economics/Management
07/2014
Award of the German Mathematics Association
10/2012
Award for High Academic Achievements and Excellence in Physics, Chemistry and Scientific
Mathematics of Lester B. Pearson High School Montréal, Canada
Publications
Articles in Refereed Journals
(2022). ICT, Collaboration, and Innovation: Evidence from BITNET, Journal of Public Economics 211. DOI
- 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.
- Also published as: CESifo Working Paper No. 8646
- Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 20-18
Further Publications, Press Articles, Interviews
(2021). Wie Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien die Zusammenarbeit fördern und innovative Ideen ermöglichen, Ökonomenstimme 2021.
Discussion Papers
(2020). ICT, Collaboration, and Science-Based Innovation: Evidence from BITNET, CESifo Working Paper, No. 8646.
- Does access to information and communication technologies (ICT) 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 exclusively science-related and stem from fields where knowledge can be codified easily. In contrast, we neither find an effect on patents not building on science nor on inventors unconnected to universities.
- Available at SSRN
- Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 20-18
- Also published in: Journal of Public Economics Volume 211, July 2022, 104678
Presentations
27.09.2021
ICT, Collaboration, and Science-Based Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
Annual Conference, Verein für Socialpolitik
Location: online
27.08.2021
ICT, Collaboration, and Science-Based Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
48th Annual Conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE)
Location: online
02.07.2021
ICT, Collaboration, and Science-Based Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
Bavarian Young Economist Meeting
Location: online
11.06.2021
Discussion of ICT’s Wide Web: A System-Level Analysis of ICT’s Industrial Diffusion with Algorithmic Links (by Ekaterina Prytkova)
19th ZEW Conference on the Economics of Information and Communication Technologies
Location: online
03.03.2021
ICT, Collaboration, and Science-Based Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
14th RGS Doctoral Conference in Economics
Location: online
03.03.2021
Discussion of Digital Infrastructure and Local Economic Growth: Early Internet in Sub-Saharan Africa (by Moritz Goldbeck and Valentin Lindlacher)
14th RGS Doctoral Conference in Economics
Location: online
16.02.2021
ICT, Collaboration, and Science-Based Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
TUM BEWIP Seminar
Location: online
01.02.2021
Downstream Demand And Upstream Innovation: Progress in the German Watch Industry
LMU Innovation Workshop
Location: online
11.12.2020
ICT, Collaboration, and Science-Based Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
Joint PhD Workshop on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competition
Location: online (Mannheim)
07.10.2020
Time for Progress: Does Demand Trigger Innovation?
EBE Research Strategy Seminar
Location: online (Munich)
11.09.2020
The Impact of BITNET on Inventors
EPIP 2020
Location: online (Madrid, Spain)
07.09.2020
Time for Progress: Does Demand Trigger Innovation?
Research Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
Location: online
27.07.2020
The Value of Unpublished Projects
LMU Innovation Workshop
Location: online (Munich)
04.03.2020
The Value of Unpublished Projects
Research Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
Location: Zugspitze
25.11.2019
The Impact of BITNET on Inventors
LMU Munich Innovation Workshop
Location: Munich
03.09.2019
The Impact of BITNET on Inventors
Research Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
Location: Tutzing
14.03.2019
Digitization and Firm Innovation: Does the Degree of Digitization Exert A Different Influence on Product Innovation and Process Innovation?
IWH Halle
Location: Halle
Courses
Summer 2021
Multinational Firms
Tutorial (Bachelor)
Location: LMU Munich
Summer 2021
Globalization and Competition
Seminar (Bachelor)
Location: LMU Munich
Summer 2020
Multinational Firms
Tutorial (Bachelor)
Location: LMU Munich
Summer 2020
Competition and Regulation Policy in the Digital Economy
Seminar (Bachelor)
Location: LMU Munich