Publications
Publications
- 2020
- HBS Working Paper Series
Inventing the Endless Frontier: The Effects of the World War II Research Effort on Post-War Innovation
By: Daniel P. Gross and Bhaven N. Sampat
Abstract
During World War II, the U.S. government launched an unprecedented effort to mobilize science for war: a newly-established Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) entered thousands of R&D contracts with industrial and academic contractors, spending one to two orders of magnitude more than what the government was previously investing in science. In this paper, we study the long-run effects of the OSRD-supported research effort on U.S. invention. Using data on all OSRD contracts and the patents they produced, we show that these investments had large effects on the direction and location of U.S. invention and high-tech industrial employment, setting in motion agglomeration forces which shaped the technology clusters of the postwar era. Our results highlight how mission-driven federal investments in a blend of basic and applied research can foster domestic innovation and long-run technological progress.
Keywords
World War II; Vannevar Bush; OSRD; Mission-oriented R&D; Direction Of Innovation; Geography Of Innovation; Technology Clusters; U.S. Innovation System; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges; War; History; Government Administration; United States
Citation
Gross, Daniel P., and Bhaven N. Sampat. "Inventing the Endless Frontier: The Effects of the World War II Research Effort on Post-War Innovation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-126, June 2020.