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Articles in Refereed Journals
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research

Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time?

Azoulay, Pierre; Fons-Rosen, Christian; Graff Zivin, Joshua (2019). Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time? The American Economic Review, 109 (8), 2889-2920.

We examine how the premature death of eminent life scientists alters the vitality of their fields. While the flow of articles by collaborators into affected fields decreases after the death of a star scientist, the flow of articles by non-collaborators increases markedly. This surge in contributions from outsiders draws upon a different scientific corpus and is disproportionately likely to be highly cited. While outsiders appear reluctant to challenge leadership within a field when the star is alive, the loss of a luminary provides an opportunity for fields to evolve in new directions that advance the frontier of knowledge.

External Link (DOI)