Replication data for: Spreading the Word: Geography, Policy, and Knowledge Spillovers

Using new data on citations to university patents and scientific publications, we study how geography affects university knowledge spillovers. Citations to patents decline sharply with distance and are strongly constrained by state borders. The effect of distance on citations to scientific publications is less sharp, and the state border effect on publications is significant only for lower-quality public universities. We show that the state border effect is heterogeneous and strongly influenced by university and state characteristics and policies. It is larger for universities that are public and that have strong local development policies, and in states with strong noncompete labor laws, greater reliance on in-state educated scientists, and lower rates of interstate scientific labor mobility. We confirm the impact of noncompete statutes by studying a policy reform in Michigan.

本研究利用高校专利与学术论文引用的全新数据集，考察地理因素对高校知识溢出的影响。研究发现，专利引用量随地理距离增加而急剧下降，且显著受州界约束。而地理距离对学术论文引用的影响则相对平缓，且州界对论文引用的影响仅在低质量公立高校中具有统计显著性。本研究表明，州界效应存在显著异质性，且深受高校与所在州的特征及政策影响：公立高校以及推行强力地方发展政策的高校，其州界效应更为显著；在施行严格竞业禁止劳工法、高度依赖本州培养科研人员、跨州科研人员流动率较低的州，该效应同样更为突出。最后，本研究通过分析密歇根州的一项政策改革，验证了竞业禁止法规的影响效应。