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Tapping into Talent: Coupling Education and Innovation Policies for Economic Growth

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  • Ufuk Akcigit
  • Jeremy G. Pearce
  • Marta Prato

Abstract

How do innovation and education policy affect individual career choice and aggregate productivity? This paper analyzes the various layers that connect R&D subsidies and higher education policy to productivity growth. We put the development of scarce talent and career choice at the center of a new endogenous growth framework with individual-level heterogeneity in talent, frictions, and preferences. We link the model to micro-level data from Denmark and uncover a host of facts about the links between talent, higher education, and innovation. We use these facts to calibrate the model and study counterfactual policy exercises. We find that R&D subsidies, while less effective than standard models, can be strengthened when combined with higher education policy that alleviates financial frictions for talented youth. Education and innovation policies not only alleviate different frictions, but also impact innovation at different time horizons. Education policy is also more effective in societies with high income inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Ufuk Akcigit & Jeremy G. Pearce & Marta Prato, 2020. "Tapping into Talent: Coupling Education and Innovation Policies for Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 27862, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27862
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    1. Jesse Perla & Christopher Tonetti & Michael E. Waugh, 2021. "Equilibrium Technology Diffusion, Trade, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(1), pages 73-128, January.
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    8. 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..
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    11. Stantcheva, Stefanie & Akcigit, Ufuk & Caicedo Soler, Santiago & Miguelez, Ernest & Sterzi, Valerio, 2018. "Dancing with the Stars: Innovation through Interactions," CEPR Discussion Papers 12819, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kang, Yankun & Leng, Xuan & Liao, Yunxiang & Zheng, Shilin, 2024. "Information disclosure, spillovers, and knowledge accumulation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Sarah McNamara & Guido Neidhoefer & Patrick Lehnert, 2024. "Intergenerational Mobility of Education in Europe: Geographical Patterns, Cohort-Linked Measures, and the Innovation Nexus," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0211, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    3. Burchardi, Konrad & Terry, Stephen & Chaney, Thomas & Tarquinio, Lisa & Hassan, Tarek, 2020. "Immigration, Innovation, and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 14719, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Carlos Esteban Posada, 2020. "Cambio técnico y política económica: la teoría y el caso colombiano (1950-2019)," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 18506, Universidad EAFIT.
    5. Akcigit, Ufuk & Goldschlag, Nathan, 2023. "Where Have All the "Creative Talents" Gone? Employment Dynamics of US Inventors," CEPR Discussion Papers 18035, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Ufuk Akcigit & Nathan Goldschlag, 2022. "Measuring the Characteristics and Employment Dynamics of U.S. Inventors," Working Papers 22-43, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Barbara Biasi & Song Ma, 2022. "The Education-Innovation Gap," CESifo Working Paper Series 9653, CESifo.
    8. Santiago Caicedo & Jeremy Pearce, 2024. "Need for Speed: Quality of Innovations and the Allocation of Inventors," Staff Reports 1127, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    9. Marchiori, Carmen & Minelli, Enrico, 2023. "Talent, basic research and growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    10. Cao, Linyi & Jiang, Helu & Li, Guangwei & Zhu, Lijun, 2024. "Haste makes waste? Quantity-based subsidies under heterogeneous innovations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. Xiao Ma, 2024. "College Expansion, Trade, And Innovation: Evidence From China," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 315-351, February.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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