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SUMMARY:Fire and Mice: The Effect of Supply Shocks on Basic Science
DTSTART:20200803T170000
DTSTAMP:20260501T103640Z
UID:000ed5f433e7552ee5309b04eb50f4a2062936e1bb6ba7ac11c87222
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dennis Byrski (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competi
 tion)\nDennis Byrski (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition)
 \n"Fire and Mice: The Effect of Supply Shocks on Basic Science" (video)\nD
 iscussant: Scott Stern (MIT Sloan)\n\nAbstract\n\nWe study how a negative 
 supply shock to research-related assets affects the production of scientif
 ic knowledge. In particular\, we exploit the 1989 Morrell Park fire that d
 estroyed a considerable share of the world’s largest mice breeding facil
 ity\, the Jackson Laboratory\, and killed approximately 400\,000 mice. Thi
 s fire led to an unforeseen and substantial supply shortage in mice for th
 e North American biomedical research community\, which we can isolate at t
 he strain and scientist level based on proprietary archival data. Using di
 fference-in-differences estimations\, we find that the scientific producti
 vity of affected scientists decreases when measured in simple publication 
 counts\, but much less so when we adjust for the publications’ quality. 
 Moreover\, affected researchers are more likely to initiate research that 
 is unrelated to their previous work. This indicates that affected scientis
 ts switched research trajectories but maintained their scientific impact. 
 In the aggregate\, the temporary supply shortage of particular mice strain
 s led to a permanent decrease in their usage among U.S. scientists. These 
 results highlight the important role of supply chains in basic science.\n\
 nKeywords: Science\, physical capital\, laboratory mice\, tools\, fire.\n\
 n\nEPFL Virtual Innovation Seminar\nEVIS is a bi-weekly virtual seminar se
 ries focusing on Science\, Technology and Innovation topics studied throug
 h the lens of Economics\, Entrepreneurship\, Strategy and Finance.\n 
LOCATION:Zoom
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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