Recent Research: Eminent Scholars and Economic Development

[Editor’s Note: The following discussion regarding the research’s relevance to state and regional TBED policy is SSTI’s. It will not be found in the working paper, nor do we mean to suggest these conclusions were drawn by professors Zucker and Darby.]

Like moths to a flame, tech firms over the past 24 years appear to have migrated toward star scientists and engineers, according to a new working paper from Lynne Zucker and Michael Darby. The latest findings by the two UCLA professors suggests the mere presence of star researchers is sufficient power to attract technology businesses to certain regions of the country – regardless of the discoveries made by these scientific superstars or their field of research.

Movement of Star Scientists and Engineers and High-tech Firm Entry traced the careers of 1,838 stars between 1981-2004 (stars are defined based on patents and citations in the leading citation indices) to reveal the apparent extraordinary magnetism of the world’s top scientists and engineers as far as economic development is concerned.

This would appear to be good news for the states investing heavily in tech-based economic development programs tailored to attracting, equipping and financing these star researchers. Eminent scholar and endowed chair programs have grown in popularity around the country; the approach is included, for instance, in Indiana’s new strategic plan described elsewhere in this week’s Digest.

The good news seems fleeting, however, with other findings in the paper. Over time, stars have become more concentrated, choosing to locate in areas already occupied by their peers within the same discipline, the paper observes. This would suggest states may have to sweeten the pot to pull stars apart or will need to attract multiple stars at a time. Investments in young, rising stars may also be a productive approach, albeit potentially short lived if they relocate to larger centers of concentration, “star clusters."

The implications of the research further warn of a potential among state and regional TBED programs toward bidding wars for star researchers, a technique most often reserved in the zero-sum game of states competing against each other for large manufacturing facilities.

Adding to the bad news, by expanding their work to track stars and high-tech firm movement in 24 other countries and the U.S., Zucker and Darby find foreign-born American stars tend to “return to their homeland when it develops sufficient strength in their area of science and technology.” With the significant number of star researchers who are foreign-born and the increased investment other countries are making in science and engineering while the overall U.S. investment is relatively flat, this could be particularly damaging at the national level.

Zucker and Darby’s findings also suggest utilizing alternate approaches for marketing regions to tech firms than are typically employed by traditional economic development efforts. Playing on the presence of star researchers in a community could have far greater impact in selected disciplines or sectors than geographic proximity to population centers or low-wages, for instance.

Movement of Star Scientists and Engineers and High-Tech Firm Entry is available for purchase from the National Bureau of Economic Research at: http://papers.nber.org/papers/W12172

Links to this paper and nearly 4,000 additional TBED-related research reports, strategic plans and other papers can be found at the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center, jointly developed by the Technology Administration and SSTI, at: http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org/.