Thread by Heidi L. Williams

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It was such a pleasure co-organizing the NBER Innovation Research Boot Camp for PhD students with @Afinetheorem and @bfjo.

We had an amazing group of economists make time to teach & talk with this group.

Here’s a thread on what we covered in 11 sessions (w/ links to slides)…
1. @bfjo and I each prepared introductory slides to set the table for the boot camp.

Here are Ben’s:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/BJ1.pdf
And here are mine:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/HW1.pdf
2. Naomi Lamoreaux shared a historical perspective on innovation (e.g., how did the patent system arise and what can we learn from it?):

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/Naomi.pptx
3. @pierre_azoulay encouraged students to think about science as an economic institution which itself creates incentives that shape scientists’ behavior:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/PZ.pdf
4. I gave a lecture on intellectual property rights (e.g., patents) as innovation policy:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/HW2.pdf
5. The inimitable @ChadJonesEcon gave not one but four presentations:

- The combinatorial growth model

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/ChadJones1.pdf

- The semi-endogenous growth model and the potential futures for growth:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/ChadJones2.pdf
His paper with @I_Am_NickBloom, @johnvanreenen, and Michael Webb on “Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?”:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/ChadJones3.pdf

And advice on how he works:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/ChadJones4.pdf
6. @bfjo covered human capital and innovation:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/BJ2.pdf
7. @sstern_mit spoke at dinner about the importance of clusters/agglomeration/geography for innovation and economic growth:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/Stern.pdf
8. There’s an enormous wealth of knowledge in these six presentations from @johnvanreenen:

- Innovation policy intro: conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/JVR1.pdf

- R&D spillovers: conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/JVR2.pdf

- R&D tax credits: conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/JVR3.pdf
9. @Afinetheorem lectured on the diffusion of innovation:

conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/K.pdf
10. I moderated our wrap-up session with the incomparable @mattsclancy and @calebwatney .

@mattsclancy discussed how to productively interface with existing research papers in order to synthesize and ask new questions. No slides but see here: www.newthingsunderthesun.com/.
.@calebwatney discussed how to choose research questions that can inform policy and government institutions. No slides but see here:

11. We ended with a great dinner keynote from @RebeccaReCap on organizations and innovation. As is usual, no slides at dinner (@sstern_mit was an exception, and needled me for it during his introduction…)
A special thank you to @open_phil for generously sponsoring this boot camp, to @nberpubs for hosting, and to @mattsclancy and @calebwatney for being willing to pinch-hit on some unexpected scheduling changes at the last minute.
Here’s a link to the full program: conference.nber.org/altsched/IRBCs22

Happy to announce that next year, @Afinetheorem, @bfjo, and I will have @inaganguli and @KRoyMyers joining us as co-organizers.

We will post details here and elsewhere when available.
Apologies to @johnvanreenen that I forgot to post his last 3 of 6 slide decks :)
@johnvanreenen General taxation: conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/JVR4.pdf
Direct R&D subsidies: conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/JVR5.pdf
Human capital policy: conference.nber.org/confer/2022/IRBCs22/JVR6.pdf
@johnvanreenen 🙈 Very embarrassed that I forgot to thank our amazing and over-qualified course teaching assistants/social chairs @RyanReedHill and @carolyn_sms, who are both brilliant and knowledgeable about where to find good ice cream in Cambridge.
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