Which Peers Matter? The Relative Impacts of Collaborators, Colleagues, and Competitors

George J. Borjas; Kirk Doran

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00472

← Search

Which Peers Matter? The Relative Impacts of Collaborators, Colleagues, and Competitors

George J. Borjas¹; Kirk Doran²

¹ Harvard University Press · ² University of Notre Dame

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2015

Many economists believe knowledge production generates positive spillovers among knowledge producers. The available evidence, however, is mixed. We argue that spillovers can exist along three dimensions: idea, geographic, and collaboration space. To isolate the key channel through which knowledge spills over, we use a unique data set to examine the impact of a large post-1992 exodus of Soviet mathematicians on the output of the nonémigrés. Although the data reveal strong competitive effects in idea space, there is evidence of knowledge spillovers in collaboration space, when high-quality researchers directly engage with other researchers in the joint production of new knowledge.

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00472
Volume: 97 (5)
Pages: 1104-1117
Language: en
Export: BibTeX
Sources: openalex crossref