IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/doi10.1086-737235.html

Opening Up Military Innovation: Causal Effects of Reforms to US Defense Research

Author

Listed:
  • Sabrina T. Howell
  • Jason Rathje
  • John Van Reenen
  • Jun Wong

Abstract

For governments procuring innovation, one choice is whether to specify desired products (a conventional approach) or allow firms to suggest ideas (an open approach). Using a US Air Force R&D grant program where open and conventional competitions were held simultaneously, we find that open awards increase both commercial innovation and technology adoption by the military. In contrast, conventional awards have no positive effects on new technology but do create more program lock-in. We present evidence that openness matters over and above inducing differential selection, for example, of less well-established firms. These results suggest benefits from open approaches to innovation procurement.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabrina T. Howell & Jason Rathje & John Van Reenen & Jun Wong, 2025. "Opening Up Military Innovation: Causal Effects of Reforms to US Defense Research," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 133(11), pages 3605-3651.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/737235
    DOI: 10.1086/737235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/737235
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/737235
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/737235?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chiappinelli, Olga & Giuffrida, Leonardo M. & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2025. "Public procurement as an innovation policy: Where do we stand?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    2. Daniel P. Gross & Bhaven N. Sampat, 2022. "Crisis Innovation Policy from World War II to COVID-19," Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 135-181.
    3. Leonardo M. Giuffrida & Emilio Raiteri, 2023. "Bureaucratic Frictions and Innovation Procurement," CESifo Working Paper Series 10775, CESifo.
    4. Chiappinelli, Olga & Giuffrida, Leonardo M. & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2023. "Public procurement as an innovation policy: Where do we stand?," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-002, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Andreas Teichgraeber & John Van Reenen, 2022. "A policy toolkit to increase research and innovation in the European Union," POID Working Papers 025, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Carril, Rodrigo, 2026. "Effizienz in der Verteidigungsbeschaffung: Best Practices für Europas Sicherheit," Kiel Reports 6, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    7. Pallante, Gianluca & Russo, Emanuele & Roventini, Andrea, 2023. "Does public R&D funding crowd-in private R&D investment? Evidence from military R&D expenditures for US states," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    8. Sarah M. Rovito & John Kamp & Amir Etemadi, 2025. "Exploring Department of the Navy SBIR Phase III awards and corresponding public sector commercialization success factors," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1363-1395, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • H57 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Procurement

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/737235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.