Following a breakthrough discovery, scientific knowledge with natural excludability may be best transferred to industry by the labor mobility of top scientists from universities and research institutes to firms. We model labor mobility as a function of scientist's quality (as measured by scientific citations) and his or her reservation wages which is determined by labor quality and the cost of moving, and also depends on the trial frequency, (number of potential firm employers), potential interfering offers from universities, and experienced increase in productivity of top scientists already in firms (reducing reservation values). Applying our model to bioscience and related industries, we find broad support in a group duration analysis. The time a star scientist remains in a university before moving to a firm is significantly decreased as the quality of the bioscientist and as her focus on human genetics increases; decreased as the expected frequency of offers increases with increases in local firms commercializing the technology and the percentage of ties to scientists outside the bioscientist's organization; decreased by experienced increase in productivity by other star scientists nearby who have already moved to firms. Only the number of top quality universities in the local area, via interfering university moves, increases the time a star scientist remains in a university before moving to a firm. We find some evidence of heterogeneity when we decompose the sample of bioscientists by their destination status, finding only quality remains significant across both affiliated scientists (full-time employment in a firm) and linked scientists (part-time employment), with all variables that are significant in the duration model also entering for linked scientists.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
6050.
Length: Date of creation: May 1997 Date of revision: Publication status: published as Zucker, Lynne G., Michael R. Darby and Maximo Torero. "Labor Mobility From Academe To Commerce," Journal of Labor Economics, 2002, v20(3,Jul), 629-660. Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6050
Note: PR Contact details of provider: Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Phone: 617-868-3900 Email: Web page: http://www.nber.org More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().
Find related papers by JEL classification: J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - General J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Anders Malmberg & Peter Maskell, 2005.
"Localized Learning Revisited,"
DRUID Working Papers
05-19, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Anders Malmberg & Peter Maskell, 2006.
"Localized Learning Revisited,"
Growth and Change,
Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky, vol. 37(1), pages 1-18.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)