Discussion Paper No. 455
November 21, 2023
Measuring Science: Performance Metrics and the Allocation of Talent
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Abstract:
We study how performance metrics affect the allocation of talent. We exploit the introduction of a new measure of scientific performance: citation metrics. For technical reasons, the first citation database only covered citations from certain journals and years. Thus, only a subset of citations became visible, while others remained invisible. We identify the effects of citation metrics by comparing the predictiveness of visible to invisible citations. Citation metrics increased assortative matching between scientists and departments. We also find that highly-cited scientists in lower-ranked departments (“hidden stars”) benefited from citation metrics, while minorities did not. Citation metrics also affected promotion decisions.
Keywords:
performance metrics; allocation of talent; citations; scientists;
JEL-Classification:
J62, O31, J45; O31; J45;
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Discussion Paper No. 453
November 18, 2023
Career Concerns As Public Good: The Role of Signaling for Open Source Software Development
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Abstract:
Much of today’s software relies on programming code shared openly online. Yet, it is unclear why volunteer developers contribute to open-source software (OSS), a public good. We study OSS contributions of some 22,900 developers worldwide on the largest online code repository platform, GitHub, and find evidence in favor of career concerns as a motivating factor to contribute. Our difference-in-differences model leverages time differences in incentives for labor market signaling across users to causally identify OSS activity driven by career concerns. We observe OSS activity of users who move for a job to be elevated by about 16% in the job search period compared to users who relocate for other reasons. This increase is mainly driven by contributions to projects that increase external visibility of existing works, are written in programming languages that are highly valued in the labor market, but have a lower direct use-value for the community. A sizable extensive margin shows signaling incentives motivate first-time OSS contributions. Our findings suggest that signaling incentives on private labor markets have sizable positive externalities through public good creation in open-source communities, but these contributions are targeted less to community needs and more to their signal value.
Keywords:
software; knowledge work; digital platforms; signaling; open source; job search;
JEL-Classification:
L17; L86; H40; J24; J30;
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Discussion Paper No. 427
September 19, 2023
Defying Gravity: What Drives Productivity in Remote Teams?
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Abstract:
How can teams organize for productive online collaboration? The coronavirus pandemic has led to a large and persistent shift toward remote work. Using fine-grained data from the world's largest platform for open-source software development, we find that the pandemic reduced the productivity of previously co-located teams substantially, whereas similar teams with remote work experience remained resilient. While access to remote talent and experience are important for overall team success, our results highlight the crucial role of communication for productive online collaboration. We find suggestive evidence that, with their peers shifting to online work, remote workers become better integrated into their teams' communication. We conclude that while teams' performance may suffer from the shift to remote work, setting up systems for effective online communication can help mitigate productivity loss.
Keywords:
gravity model; open source; knowledge workers; knowledge flows; remote work; online labor markets; COVID-19;
JEL-Classification:
J01; M54; O30; F14;
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Discussion Paper No. 422
September 11, 2023
Bit by Bit: Colocation and the Death of Distance in Software Developer Networks
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Abstract:
Digital work settings potentially facilitate remote collaboration and thereby decrease geographic frictions in knowledge work. Here, I analyze spatial collaboration patterns of some 191 thousand software developers in the United States on the largest code repository platform GitHub. Despite advanced digitization in this occupation, developers are geographically highly concentrated, with 79.8% of users clustering in only ten economic areas, and colocated developers collaborate about nine times as much as non-colocated developers. However, the colocation effect is much smaller than in less digital social or inventor networks, and apart from colocation geographic distance is of little relevance to collaboration. This suggests distance is indeed less important for collaboration in a digital work setting while other strong drivers of geographic concentration remain. Heterogeneity analyses provide insights on which types of collaboration tend to colocate: the colocation effect is smaller within larger organizations, for high-quality projects, among experienced developers, and for sporadic interactions. Overall, this results in a smaller colocation effect in larger economic areas.
Keywords:
geography; digitalization; networks; knowledge economy; colocation;
JEL-Classification:
L84; O18; O30; R32;
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Discussion Paper No. 403
June 28, 2023
Persecution and Escape
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Abstract:
We study the role of professional networks in facilitating emigration of Jewish academics dismissed from their positions by the Nazi government. We use individual-level exogenous variation in the timing of dismissals to estimate causal eects. Academics with more ties to early émigrés (emigrated 1933-1934) were more likely to emigrate. Early émigrés functioned as “bridging nodes” that facilitated emigration to their own destination. We also provide evidence of decay in social ties over time and show that professional networks transmit information that is not publicly observable. Finally, we study the relative importance of three types (family, community, professional) of social networks.
Keywords:
professional networks; high-skilled emigration; Nazi Germany; Jewish academics; universities;
JEL-Classification:
I20; I23; I28; J15; J24; N30; N34; N40; N44;
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Discussion Paper No. 402
War and Science in Ukraine
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Abstract:
We discuss the impacts of the Russian invasion on Ukrainian science. Using newly collected data, we show that the war has already had significant effects on science in Ukraine: research papers produced by Ukrainian scientists declined by about 10%, approximately 5% of the most prolific scientists are publishing with a foreign affiliation, 22% of top universities have faced destruction of physical capital, and international collaborations with Russian scientists have declined by more than 40%. Drawing upon the economics of science and innovation literature, we highlight three primary channels through which wars impact science: 1) the loss of human capital, 2) the destruction of physical capital, and 3) reductions in international scientific cooperation. The evidence from the literature on the long-run effects of losing human or physical capital indicates that shocks to physical capital can be remedied more easily than shocks to human capital. Our new data also suggests that human capital shocks are the main drivers of the reduction in Ukrainian research output that has occurred since the beginning of the war. Hence, reconstruction efforts should be focused on supporting scientists to continue in the research sector and to return to Ukraine after the war has ended.
Keywords:
war and science; scientific human capital; physical capital destruction; international migration; international scientific cooperation;
JEL-Classification:
H52; I23; I25; J44; J61; J62; O38; O52;
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Discussion Paper No. 399
May 26, 2023
Productivity Spillovers among Knowledge Workers in Agglomerations: Evidence from GitHub
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Abstract:
Software engineering is a field with strong geographic concentration, with Silicon Valley as the epitome of a tech cluster. Yet, most studies on the productivity effects of agglomerations measure innovation with patent data, thus capturing only a fraction of the industry's activity. With data from the open source platform GitHub, our study contributes an alternative proxy for productivity, complementing the literature by covering a broad range of software engineering. With user activity data covering the years 2015 to 2021, we relate cluster size to an individual's productivity. Our findings suggest that physical proximity to a large number of other knowledge workers in the same field leads to spillovers, increasing productivity considerably. In further analyses, we confirm the causal relationship with an IV approach and study heterogeneities by cluster size, initial productivity and project characteristics.
Keywords:
agglomeration effects; knowledge spillovers; open source; online collaboration;
JEL-Classification:
D62; J24; O33; O36; R32;
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Discussion Paper No. 370
January 23, 2023
Persecution and Escape
Author:
Abstract:
We study the role of professional networks in facilitating emigration of Jewish academics dismissed from their positions by the Nazi government. We use individual-level exogenous variation in the timing of dismissals to estimate causal effects. Academics with more ties to early émigrés (emigrated 1933-1934) were more likely to emigrate. Early émigrés functioned as "bridging nodes" that facilitated emigration to their own destination. We also provide evidence of decay in social ties over time and show that professional networks transmit information that is not publicly observable. Finally, we study the relative importance of three types (family, community, professional) of social networks.
Keywords:
professional networks; high-skilled emigration; Nazi Germany; Jewish academics; universities;
JEL-Classification:
I20; I23; I28; J15; J24; N30; N34; N40; N44;
