High Technology Employment and University R&D Spillovers: Evidence from US Cities

Using 4 years of data from 37 American cities and 6 high technology groupings we present the first estimates of University R&D spillover effects on employment at this level of disaggregation, while controlling for prior innovations and state fixed effects. Wages and employments are strongly positively related, which can be explained in various ways. Consistent with studies showing R&D spillover effects on innovation at the state level, we find robust evidence that university R&D is a statistically significant determinant of city high technology employment and some evidence for employment effects of innovation.