America, Jump-started: World War II R&D and the Takeoff of the U.S. Innovation System
Working Paper 27375
DOI 10.3386/w27375
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During World War II, the U.S. government's Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) supported one of the largest public investments in applied R&D in U.S. history. Using data on all OSRD-funded invention, we show that this shock had a formative impact on the U.S. innovation system, catalyzing technology clusters across the country, with accompanying increases in high-tech entrepreneurship and employment. These effects persist until at least the 1970s, and appear to be driven by agglomerative forces and endogenous growth. In addition to creating technology clusters, wartime R&D permanently changed the trajectory of overall U.S. innovation in the direction of OSRD-funded technologies.
Non-Technical Summaries
- Federal support for research led to a surge in wartime patenting and also propelled innovation hubs that fostered post-war...