Tracking the flow of knowledge
Do scientists' job locations have any impact on the way their work spreads? Or, in today’s highly networked world, does research flow around the globe without regard to its point of origin? According to a study co-authored by an MIT economist, location still does matter — a finding with implications for technology transfer, the process of deriving innovations from pure research. The study shows that when scientists switch jobs — and job locations — during their careers, the move has two distinct effects on their influence. First, their papers gain citations from scholars who are their new neighbors, even as their citation frequency in papers by their former neighbors remains constant. But when it comes to patents, scientists who move see a significant reduction in the rate at which their work becomes the basis for new technologies in their old locations. For innovation, face-to-face contact matters.“Academic researchers manage to get...