New Things Under the Sun

New Things Under the Sun is a research-oriented Substack focusing on innovation, including its economics, biases against risky research, the role of firm size in R&D, and the impact of teachers on innovation. It discusses the peer review process, the application of research across regions, and technological risks.

Economics of Innovation Research and Development Practices Bias in Scientific Research Impact of Firm Size on Innovation Risk and Safety in Technology Educational Influence on Innovation Peer Review in Scientific Publishing Regional Variability in Research Application Policy Impacts on Technological Progress Knowledge Spillovers and Collaboration in Research

The hottest Substack posts of New Things Under the Sun

And their main takeaways

Teacher Influence and Innovation

208 implied HN points • 15 Dec 23
🚌 Education Teaching Research Impact Mentorship Innovation
  1. Great teachers can influence their students' interests and innovative career paths.
  2. Studies show correlations between teachers and students in music, science, and research commercialization.
  3. Teacher influence on student achievements and research topics is significant, even in cases of random student-teacher matching.

Two Announcements for PhD students

144 implied HN points • 29 Nov 23
🚌 Education Online course Innovation
  1. Join the free online Economics of Ideas, Science, and Innovation PhD short course from the Institute for Progress.
  2. Share your innovation job market paper with Matt Clancy for exposure to a wide audience.
  3. Spread the word about the call for innovation job market papers to interested individuals.
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October 2023 Updates

128 implied HN points • 24 Oct 23
🔬 Science Innovation
  1. Budget constraints in research funding can lead to bias towards conservatism in science.
  2. Knowledge spillovers occur frequently in biomedicine, impacting research categories.
  3. Citations received by economists decline substantially as they age.

Literature Reviews and Innovation

144 implied HN points • 02 Oct 23
🔬 Science Research Policy Innovation Literature Meta-analysis
  1. Literature reviews tend to be more highly cited than traditional research articles in academia and policy.
  2. Literature reviews help consolidate isolated niches of research into more central ideas in academia.
  3. Academic literature reviews can influence policy-making by providing a broader and more accurate picture of scientific findings.

Big firms have different incentives

192 implied HN points • 24 Aug 23
💼 Business Innovation R&D Incentives Productivity
  1. Large firms conduct R&D at the same rate as small firms, but they may focus more on process innovations rather than product innovations.
  2. The cost spreading advantage incentivizes larger firms to focus on process innovation, spreading costs over multiple products.
  3. Larger firms may be less inclined to engage in product innovation due to the replacement effect, potentially competing against their own existing products.

When Technology Goes Bad

320 implied HN points • 16 May 23
🔬 Science Technology Economic Growth Climate change Renewable Energy
  1. Historically, technology has skewed towards 'good' due to various reasons like benefitting from invention, collaborative research, and technological capabilities for safety.
  2. Economic growth models explore the trade-off between innovation and safety, showing that as humans get richer, they may prioritize safety over growth.
  3. Investing in safety technologies alongside economic growth can mitigate risks posed by dangerous technology like fossil fuels, pointing towards a more sustainable future.

Biases Against Risky Research

224 implied HN points • 31 Mar 23
🔬 Science Research Bias Funding Academic
  1. Scientific institutions may be risk-averse and favor safe and incremental projects over transformative ones.
  2. Individual reviewers and averaging peer review scores may bias against high-risk, high-reward research proposals.
  3. In grant review processes, negative feedback tends to be more influential than positive feedback, leading to potential bias against novel research.

And now for something completely different

192 implied HN points • 07 Jun 23
📚 Literature Academic Research
  1. Existential Crunch is a living literature review discussing societal collapse and academic research on the topic.
  2. The field of societal collapse research is still early in its development and urgent given current warnings of potential collapse.
  3. Initiatives like living literature reviews can support the synthesis of academic research on policy-relevant topics.

How to Impede Technological Progress

144 implied HN points • 13 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Innovation Policy Research Impact R&D
  1. Policy levers to slow technological progress can be classified into reverse push and pull policies
  2. Reverse push policies raise the costs of research, like restrictions on federal funding and safety regulations impacting chemistry labs
  3. Reverse pull policies reduce profitability of certain tech innovations, like carbon taxes and liability exposure, impacting R&D differently based on company size and innovation potential

What does peer review know?

160 implied HN points • 19 Apr 23
🔬 Science Peer Review
  1. Peer review is a common way to allocate scientific resources and has been shown to predict scientific impact.
  2. Studies have found a positive correlation between peer review scores and measures of research impact, such as publications and citations.
  3. The strength of the association between peer review scores and research impact may vary, but overall peer review can provide valuable insights into the potential impact of scientific work.

Can taste beat peer review?

160 implied HN points • 24 Apr 23
🔬 Science Research Peer Review Decision-making Innovation
  1. Scientific peer review has its strengths, but it also has shortcomings like high costs and potential biases.
  2. Empowering individuals to make decisions on resource allocation can sometimes outperform peer review, especially for supporting less conventional or risky research projects.
  3. Studies show that editors can play a significant role in selecting high-impact or novel research papers, showcasing the importance of individual decision-makers in scientific publishing.

Teaching Innovative Entrepreneurship

2 HN points • 19 Feb 24
🚌 Education Entrepreneurship STEM Innovation Training Mentorship
  1. Entrepreneurship training programs overall show a modest but positive impact on encouraging people to start a business and improving outcomes.
  2. Programs targeted towards science and engineering undergraduates have shown mixed results, with some studies indicating a small impact on entrepreneurial intentions.
  3. Highly selective programs for technology ventures, with intensive mentoring and networking opportunities, have demonstrated more compelling results in increasing entrepreneurship rates and success.