The Decline of Innovation in America Due to the Decoupling of the Scientific-Industrial Complex

This past week, I read this great research article called “The Changing Structure of American Innovation: Some Cautionary Remarks for Economic Growth” (June 20, 2019) by professors from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon, Andrea Patacconi, and Jungkyu Suh.

The authors argue that when it comes to R&D, Research in America has actually been going up, it’s the Development part that’s gone down. What’s the main reason behind Development going down? According to their research, the decoupling of commercialization by large companies from university research has resulted in less ideas going to market, resulting in a decline of innovation in America.

They divide the history of the Scientific-Industrial Complex into four distinct phases:

Phase 1: Agricultural Tinkerers (1850–1940)

• America was academically behind Europe when it came to pursuing research. During this period, invention was largely the domain of independent inventors in agriculture and mechanical engineering.
• It’s important to note that the big companies during that time didn’t invent technologies like the steam engine, braking systems, or telegraphy, they merely commercialized it by…