CASA Seminar Series: Neil Lee, LSE

Networks are considered to be vital for innovation and economic development. In this paper, we build a unique dataset of network connections in the UK using scraped public data on the entire universe of company board of director appointments. Using this, it considers the relationship between provides the first analysis of the relationship between network connections and regional patenting productivity in the life sciences and information technology, two widely-studied and leading high-tech sectors. Our results are consistent with the idea that highly-connected individuals play an important role in innovation processes in these sectors. Instrumental variable analysis shows that regions with more interconnected actors are more innovative, and that the number of inter-connections matters.