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25 2021 12:30 - 13:45
Room AS02, Via Roentgen 1 (floor -2)

Applied Microeconomics

The Geography of Knowledge Production: Connecting Islands and Ideas


Andrew Bernard (Tuck School of Business)

 


This paper examines the importance of economic integration on the flow of ideas. During the late 1980s and -90s, one of Japan’s four islands, Shikoku, was for the first time connected to the largest island, Honshu, by three different bridges. This led to a large reduction in travel time compared to existing modes of transport (ferry and air). We examine the impact of bridge connections on team formation and the production of knowledge, as measured by patent data. Using the geolocation of inventors before the opening of the bridges, we find that inventors close to future bridges increased knowledge production more than inventors far from the bridges. Furthermore, the treated inventors matched to more productive inventors, as measured by co-inventors’ existing patent portfolio. The results are robust to instrumenting for the location of the bridges using the minimum bridge span distances between Shikoku and Honshu. Our results suggest that economic integration can have sizable effects on idea flows and consequently innovation and growth.

 

For further information, please contact sara.picciallo@unibocconi.it