Science of Science Day.

• Position: Program and Working Group Meetings - National Bureau of Economic Research - Conference news

The NBER's Program on Productivity held a "Science of Science Day" when it met on March 14. Program Director Ernst R. Berndt and NBER Research Associate Pierre Azoulay, both of MIT, organized the meeting. These papers were discussed:

Shulamit Kahn, Boston University, and Megan J. MacGarvie, Boston University and NBER, "How Important is Location for Research Productivity in Science?"

Discussant: Richard B. Freeman, Harvard University and NBER

Pierre Azoulay; Joshua Graft Zivin, Columbia University and NBER; and Jialan Wang, MIT, "Superstar Extinction"

Discussant: Lynne G. Zucker, University of California, Los Angeles and NBER

Liam Brunt, University of Lausanne; Josh Lerner, Harvard University and NBER; and Tom Nicholas, Harvard University, "Inducement Prize and Innovation"

Discussant: Michael Kremer, Harvard University and NBER

Laure Turner, CREST-ENSAE; and Jacques Mairesse, CREST-ENSAE and NBER, "Individual Productivity Differences in Scientific Research: An Econometric Exploration of Publications by French Physicists"

Discussant: lain Cockburn, Boston University and NBER

David Popp, Syracuse University and NBER, and Richard Newell, Duke University, "Where Does Energy R and D Come From? A First Look at Crowding Out from Environmentally-Friendly R and D"

Discussant: Rebecca Henderson, MIT and NBER

Kahn and MacGarvie ask whether scientists located outside the United States are at a disadvantage when it comes to research productivity, collaboration, and knowledge diffusion. The principal difficulties of comparing scientists inside the United States with those outside the United States arise from unobserved heterogeneity among scientists and the endogeneity of location choices. This paper uses a new and unique dataset of foreign-born U.S.-educated scientists that allows its authors to exploit exogenous variation in post-Ph.D, location induced by visa status. They thus are able to compare students who were required by law to leave the United States upon the completion of their studies with similar students who were allowed to remain in the United States. The researchers assess whether students who left the United States have more or fewer publications, patents, citations, and collaborators when compared with a control student with the same advisor. They also ask whether these students have more or fewer international collaborations.

Azoulay and his co-authors estimate the magnitude of spillovers generated by 137 academic "superstars" in the...