IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp11977.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Invisible Geniuses: Could the Knowledge Frontier Advance Faster?

Author

Listed:
  • Agarwal, Ruchir

    (International Monetary Fund)

  • Gaule, Patrick

    (University of Bristol)

Abstract

The advancement of the knowledge frontier is crucial for technological innovation and human progress. Using novel data from the setting of mathematics, this paper establishes two results. First, we document that individuals who demonstrate exceptional talent in their teenage years have an irreplaceable ability to create new ideas over their lifetime, suggesting that talent is a central ingredient for the production of knowledge. Second, such talented individuals born in low- or middle-income countries are systematically less likely to become knowledge producers. Our findings suggest that policies to encourage exceptionally-talented youth to pursue scientific careers - especially those from lower income countries - could accelerate the advancement of the knowledge frontier.

Suggested Citation

  • Agarwal, Ruchir & Gaule, Patrick, 2018. "Invisible Geniuses: Could the Knowledge Frontier Advance Faster?," IZA Discussion Papers 11977, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11977
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp11977.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ina Ganguli, 2017. "Saving Soviet Science: The Impact of Grants When Government R&D Funding Disappears," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 165-201, April.
    2. Nicholas Bloom & Charles I. Jones & John Van Reenen & Michael Webb, 2020. "Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(4), pages 1104-1144, April.
    3. Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Ari Hyytinen & Otto Toivanen, 2017. "The social origins of inventors," CEP Discussion Papers dp1522, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Richard Freeman & John Van Reenen, 2009. "What If Congress Doubled R&D Spending on the Physical Sciences?," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 9, pages 1-38, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Douglas J. Besharov & Heidi Williams, 2012. "Innovation Inducement Prizes: Connecting Research to Policy," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 752-776, June.
    6. Glenn Ellison & Ashley Swanson, 2016. "Do Schools Matter for High Math Achievement? Evidence from the American Mathematics Competitions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(6), pages 1244-1277, June.
    7. Fu, Qiang & Lu, Jingfeng & Lu, Yuanzhu, 2012. "Incentivizing R&D: Prize or subsidies?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 67-79.
    8. George J. Borjas & Kirk B. Doran, 2015. "Cognitive Mobility: Labor Market Responses to Supply Shocks in the Space of Ideas," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(S1), pages 109-145.
    9. Ufuk Akcigit & John Grigsby & Tom Nicholas, 2017. "The Rise of American Ingenuity: Innovation and Inventors of the Golden Age," Working Papers 2017-6, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    10. Fabian Waldinger, 2010. "Quality Matters - the Expulsion of Professors and Ph.D. Student Outcomes in Nazi Germany," CEP Discussion Papers dp0985, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Fabian Waldinger, 2010. "Quality Matters: The Expulsion of Professors and the Consequences for PhD Student Outcomes in Nazi Germany," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(4), pages 787-831, August.
    12. Pierre Azoulay & Joshua S. Graff Zivin & Gustavo Manso, 2011. "Incentives and creativity: evidence from the academic life sciences," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 42(3), pages 527-554, September.
    13. Alessandro Iaria & Carlo Schwarz & Fabian Waldinger, 2018. "Frontier Knowledge and Scientific Production: Evidence from the Collapse of International Science," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(2), pages 927-991.
    14. Glenn Ellison & Ashley Swanson, 2010. "The Gender Gap in Secondary School Mathematics at High Achievement Levels: Evidence from the American Mathematics Competitions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 109-128, Spring.
    15. Shulamit Kahn & Megan J. MacGarvie, 2016. "How Important Is U.S. Location for Research in Science?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(2), pages 397-414, May.
    16. Chang‐Tai Hsieh & Erik Hurst & Charles I. Jones & Peter J. Klenow, 2019. "The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(5), pages 1439-1474, September.
    17. Michael Kremer & Heidi Williams, 2010. "Incentivizing Innovation: Adding to the Tool Kit," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 10, pages 1-17, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Tolga Yuret, 2024. "Career paths of the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) medalists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(6), pages 3469-3491, June.
    2. Agarwal, Ruchir & Ganguli, Ina & Gaule, Patrick & Smith, Geoff, 2021. "Why U.S. Immigration Barriers Matter for the Global Advancement of Science," IZA Discussion Papers 14016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Elias Einio & Josh Feng & Xavier Jaravel, 2022. "Social push and the direction of innovation," CEP Discussion Papers dp1861, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Corsini, Alberto & Pezzoni, Michele & Visentin, Fabiana, 2022. "What makes a productive Ph.D. student?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    5. Enea Baselgia & Reto Foellmi, 2022. "Inequality and growth: a review on a great open debate in economics," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-5, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Agarwal, Ruchir & Ganguli, Ina & Gaulé, Patrick & Smith, Geoff, 2023. "Why U.S. immigration matters for the global advancement of science," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    7. Alexeev, Michael & Natkhov, Timur & Polishchuk, Leonid, 2024. "Institutions, abilities, and the allocation of talent: Evidence from Russian regions," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 271-296.
    8. Fry, Caroline V. & Lynham, John & Tran, Shannon, 2023. "Ranking researchers: Evidence from Indonesia," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ina Ganguli & Fabian Waldinger, 2024. "War and Science in Ukraine," Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 165-188.
    2. Jeffrey P. Clemens & Parker Rogers, 2020. "Demand Shocks, Procurement Policies, and the Nature of Medical Innovation: Evidence from Wartime Prosthetic Device Patents," CESifo Working Paper Series 8781, CESifo.
    3. Gaule, Patrick & Piacentini, Mario, 2018. "An advisor like me? Advisor gender and post-graduate careers in science," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 805-813.
    4. Tomoya Mori & Shosei Sakaguchi, 2019. "Creation of knowledge through exchanges of knowledge: Evidence from Japanese patent data," Papers 1908.01256, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    5. Alex Bell & Raj Chetty & Xavier Jaravel & Neviana Petkova & John Van Reenen, 2019. "Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 647-713.
    6. Karol Jan Borowiecki, 2022. "Good Reverberations? Teacher Influence in Music Composition since 1450," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(4), pages 991-1090.
    7. Keith Head & Yao Amber Li & Asier Minondo, 2019. "Geography, Ties, and Knowledge Flows: Evidence from Citations in Mathematics," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 713-727, October.
    8. Bergé, Laurent & Carayol, Nicolas & Roux, Pascale, 2018. "How do inventor networks affect urban invention?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 137-162.
    9. Bell, Alex & Chetty, Raj & Jaravel, Xavier & Petkova, Neviana & Van Reenen, John, 2019. "Do tax cuts produce more Einsteins? The impacts of financial incentives vs. exposure to innovation on the supply of inventors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121796, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. George J. Borjas & Kirk B. Doran, 2015. "Which Peers Matter? The Relative Impacts of Collaborators, Colleagues, and Competitors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1104-1117, December.
    11. Rebecca McKibbin & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2021. "Does Research Save Lives? The Local Spillovers of Biomedical Research on Mortality," NBER Working Papers 29420, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. George J. Borjas & Kirk B. Doran, 2021. "The Collapse Of The Soviet Union And The Productivity Of American Mathematicians," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 11, pages 313-373, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    13. Fabian Waldinger, 2016. "Bombs, Brains, and Science: The Role of Human and Physical Capital for the Creation of Scientific Knowledge," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(5), pages 811-831, December.
    14. Becker, Sascha O. & Mukand, Sharun & Lindenthal, Volker & Waldinger, Fabian, 2021. "Persecution and Escape," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 542, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    15. Broström, Anders, 2019. "Academic breeding grounds: Home department conditions and early career performance of academic researchers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1647-1665.
    16. Howell, Sabrina T. & Rathje, Jason & Van Reenen, John & Wong, Jun, 2021. "Opening up military innovation: causal effects of reforms to US defense research," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114430, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Fons-Rosen, Christian & Gaule, Patrick & Hrendash, Taras, 2023. "Why Has Science Become an Old Man's Game?," IZA Discussion Papers 16365, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Davide Cantoni & Noam Yuchtman, 2020. "Historical Natural Experiments: Bridging Economics and Economic History," NBER Working Papers 26754, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Ductor, Lorenzo & Visser, Bauke, 2022. "When a coauthor joins an editorial board," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 576-595.
    20. Howell, Sabrina T. & Rathje, Jason & Van Reenen, John & Wong, Jun, 2021. "Opening up Military Innovation: Causal Effects of 'Bottom-up' Reforms to U.S. Defense Research," IZA Discussion Papers 14297, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    innovation; knowledge frontier; talent; IMO; mathematics;
    All these keywords.

    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
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp11977. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.