Abstract: | This paper studies geographic localization of academic and industrialknowledge spillovers. Using data on US research and developmentlaboratories that quantify spatial aspects of learning aboutuniversities and firms as well as the locations of closely affiliateduniversities and firms, I find that academic spillovers aremore localized than industrial spillovers. I also find thatlocalization is increased by nearby stocks of R&D, but reducedby laboratory and firm size. These results on localized academicspillovers reflect the dissemination of normal science and theindustryuniversity cooperative movement, which encouragefirms to work with nearby universities, so that geographic localizationcoincides with the public goods nature of academic research.This situation contrasts with relations to other firms, wherecontractual arrangements are often needed to access proprietaryinformation, often at a considerable distance. |