Understanding factors affecting the direction of innovation is a central aim of research in the economics of innovation. Progress on this topic has been inhibited by difficulties in measuring distance and movement in knowledge space. We describe a methodology that infers the mapping of the...

We examine how the introduction of a technology that automates research tasks influences the rate and type of researchers' knowledge production. To do this, we leverage the unanticipated arrival of an automating motion-sensing research technology that occurred as the consequence of the...

Understanding the factors that affect the rate and direction of technical change has been a central aim of research in the study of science and innovation for more than a half-century. Although substantial evidence exists regarding the policies and institutions that affect the rate of knowledge...

Firms and policymakers are highly dependent on academic science for knowledge advancement to help overcome technological barriers and address pressing societal challenges, and they increasingly engage in shaping the research direction of high-quality academic scientists towards certain...

We conduct the first empirical test of the knowledge burden hypothesis, one of several theories advanced to explain increasing team sizes in science. For identification, we exploit the collapse of the USSR as an exogenous shock to the knowledge frontier causing a sudden release of previously...

Due to the cumulative nature of innovation, access to knowledge is important. Although evidence exists concerning the positive impact of increased knowledge access on the rate of inventive activity, less is known about its influence on the direction of inventive activity. I examine how a change...