Informing
Policy
for Progress

Rethinking Higher Education in Israel – the Colleges, University Education and Human Resources

The subcommittee recommends that higher education in Israel be expanded and based on three institution types: Research Universities, Academic Colleges [the equivalent of the American Four Year Colleges], and Community Colleges [to be established].   The Research Universities should emphasize graduate studies [M.A. and M.Sc. with thesis and Ph.D.] and restructure their undergraduate curricula towards […]

Incentives and Invention in Universities, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-18-2003

We show that economic incentives affect the number and commercial value of inventions generated in universities. Using panel data for 102 U.S. universities during the period 1991-1999, we find that universities which give higher royalty shares to academic scientists generate more inventions and higher license income, controlling for other factors including university size, quality, research […]

Financing R&D in Mature Companies: An Empirical Analysis, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-10

R&D intensive firms are often described as (1) relying mainly on equity financing; (2) investing primarily in intangible assets; (3) exhibiting a high market to book ratio (a high Tobin’s q); and (4) as being young and fast growing. We put these commonplace characterizations to systematic empirical tests. For our sample of Israeli manufacturing firms […]

A first look at Internet Business Methods Patents, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-12

Despite the concerns about the proliferation of software and Internet business patents, there has been no systematic empirical research on Internet patents.   In this project, I take a first-look at Internet patents. I examine whether there are systematic differences between Internet business method patents and other software patents in the same patent classes.

The Technion’s green campus

At the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, we don’t just talk about the environment – we are here for the environment. The Technion today is the country’s leading institute in this field and is a model for other academic institutions in Israel and around the world.  The Technion, as Israel’s first and major technological university, bears […]

Is Venture Capital Special? Empirical Evidence from a Government Initiated Venture Capital Market, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-9

The financing extended by venture capital funds is examined in this paper, using a unique database that includes information about all the firms in the portfolio of all the Israeli venture capital funds in 1997–2000, and data on a control group of firms that were not backed by venture capital funds but were supported by […]

How Users Build The Innovation Partnership They Need

Innovation is unlikely to be successful if it is founded on the supposition that the innovative process is essentially simple, linear and sequential. It is not. The innovative process is complex, intricate and irregular and basically it can be considered as a learning and information process. Successful innovation is the product of a total information […]

Conceiving New Industrial Systems: The Different Emergence Paths of the High-Technology Industry in Israel and Ireland, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-11

In the last decade, both Israel and Ireland have been on the forefront of a successful double revolution. In the international arena, the two small states have been the hotbeds of new technology based firms (NTBF) that establish themselves in global markets in the area of software and information technology, making the two states successful […]

The Military as a Public Space – The Role of the IDF in the Israeli Software Innovation System, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-13

This paper focuses on the role played by the Israeli military (IDF) in creating and sustaining the highly innovative Israeli software industry. The IDF is often credited with a large role in the creation and sustained success of the Israeli high-tech industry.   The paper analyze the activities and history of the IDF’s central computer […]

Quantitative Growth Effects of Subsidies in a Search Theoretic R&D Modal, Science, Technology and the Economy Program (STE) – Working Papers Series STE-WP-16-2002

Should government subsidize R&D and does it matter how these subsidies are allocated? We examine these questions in a dynamic model where R&D is described as sequential sampling from a distribution of new ideas. Successful discoveries affect future available resources and incentives for further R&D. Consequently, there may be under-investment in R&D. We study the […]