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Matt Clancy
Research Fellow
Creator of New Things Under the Sun, a living literature review on social science research about innovation. Research fellow at Open Philanthropy.
https://newthingsunderthesun.com
@mattsclancy
All Pubs (98)
Attributed Pubs (98)
Go to Full Profile
1 pub in other communities.
Matt has published in other PubPub communities. Click to go to their full profile.
Is Technological Progress Slowing? The case of American Agriculture
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Nov 24, 2021
Into the weeds
Science as a map of unfamiliar terrain
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Sep 07, 2021
Science is particularly useful for inventions in unfamiliar or difficult knowledge domains
Gender and What Gets Researched
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Dec 20, 2021
Evidence on how life experiences influence research choices
Conservatism in Science
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Oct 11, 2021
Some of the forces blocking really new ideas in research
Adjacent knowledge is useful
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 24, 2021
Knowledge that is different - but not too different - tends to be most useful for innovation.
Why proximity matters: who you know
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 28, 2021
Physical proximity is more important for meeting new people (with new knowledge) than for collaboration
Free Knowledge and Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 01, 2021
Access to libraries boosts local patent rates; access to wikipedia shapes science
Standard Evidence for Learning Curves isn't Good Enough
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 04, 2021
Why a tight correlation between cumulative experience and declining costs doesn't really prove anything.
Learning Curves are Tough to Use
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 04, 2021
Better than standard evidence for the existence of learning curves, as well as why they are less useful than hoped
More Science Leads to More Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 22, 2021
Natural experiments in the extent of science show predictable effects on technology that relies on science
Building a New Research Field
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jan 06, 2022
Solving "More Research Needed"
Upstream Patenting Predicts Downstream Patenting
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Apr 10, 2021
If patents in one tech class cite another, a surge in patenting in the cited class forecasts patenting in the citing one
Ripples in the River of Knowledge
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Apr 13, 2021
Technologies directly dependent on science are atypical, but they may have indirect impacts on most technologies
Urban Social Infrastructure and Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Apr 18, 2021
Cities as a platform to remix knowledge
Publish-or-perish and the quality of science
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 10, 2021
Incentives to publish fast are in tension with careful science
Measuring Knowledge Spillovers: The Trouble with Patent Citations
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 13, 2021
Patents make citations to other patents, but that doesn't always mean engagement with the cited patent's ideas
What are the Returns to R&D?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 13, 2021
A Thought Experiment by Jones and Summers
Highly cited innovation takes a team
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 14, 2021
Usually. But there are some exceptions.
An Example of High Returns to Publicly Funded R&D
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 22, 2021
Quasi-experimental evidence on the effectiveness of giving R&D grants to small businesses
Knowledge Spillovers are a Big Deal
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 26, 2021
They are usually more than half the point of R&D
Publication Bias is Real
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 03, 2021
Several strands of evidence on the size of publication bias
Science Responds Quickly to Retraction
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 08, 2021
Some evidence that science does self-correct
Increasingly Distant Knowledge Spillovers
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 10, 2021
Evidence from patents
Combinatorial innovation and technological progress in the very long run
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 18, 2021
Taking a stab at some psychohistory
Why is publication bias worse in some disciplines than in others?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 10, 2021
Physical sciences seem to have less issues - is that due to empirical tools, theory, or both?
Remote Work and the Future of Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 17, 2021
Why I'm an optimist
Publication bias without editors? The case of preprint servers
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 29, 2021
The challenge of building outlets to host research that can't be published in top journals
The Best New Ideas Combine Disparate Old Ideas
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 11, 2021
Evidence from patents and papers
Innovation (mostly) Gets Harder
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 17, 2021
Micro and macro evidence on the productivity of R&D over time
One question, many answers
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 11, 2021
When you give multiple teams of researchers the same question and data, it's not uncommon to get different results
The Internet, the Postal Service, and Access to Distant Ideas
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 22, 2021
How easier long-distance communication erodes local knowledge spillovers
Transportation and Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 10, 2021
Cheaper travel is one reason local knowledge spillovers are declining
More People Leads to More Ideas
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 23, 2021
If ideas comes from brains, maybe more brains means more innovation
Progress in the film industry
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 23, 2021
Filmmaking is a technology too, and like other technologies it gets better
Science is good at making useful knowledge
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 26, 2021
Some evidence the scientific incentive system works
An example of successful innovation by distributed teams: academia
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 14, 2021
Why remote collaboration is becoming so common in academia, and what we can learn from it
Academic Conferences and Collaboration
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 16, 2021
Evidence that academic conferences facilitate subsequent collaborations between attendees
Optimal Kickstarter
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 16, 2021
Buterin, Hitzig, and Weyl's proposal to fund public goods
Medicine and the Limits of Market Driven Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 27, 2021
In medicine, applied research and development responds strongly to profit signals, more basic research not so much
Entrepreneurship is contagious
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 05, 2021
Exposure to entrepreneurs (mostly) encourages entrepreneurship
The "idea" of being an entrepreneur
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 13, 2021
Evidence that this idea spreads best from people in a similar social position, and that you can only get the idea once
How a field fixes itself: the applied turn in economics
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 20, 2021
Some theory on how academia changes itself, with an illustration from economics
Are ideas getting harder to find because of the burden of knowledge?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 10, 2021
More researchers per innovation, because you need more knowledge to solve frontier problems
Importing Knowledge
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 10, 2021
The knowledge immigrants bring with them takes root in receiving countries
How long does it take to go from science to technology?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 13, 2021
20 years is a good rule of thumb
How to Accelerate Technological Progress
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 06, 2021
What do we know about what works?
"Patent Stocks" and Technological Inertia
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 09, 2022
Why does patenting yesterday predict patenting today?
Are Technologies Inevitable?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Oct 30, 2022
On Path Dependency
Pulling More Fuel Efficient Cars Into Existence
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 24, 2022
Evidence that emissions standards and high fuel prices boost clean innovation in cars
Progress in Programming as Evolution
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 10, 2022
Do the same mechanisms that create complex life also create complex technology?
Steering Science with Prizes
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 25, 2022
Public honors as coordination devices
When Extreme Necessity is the Mother of Invention
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Apr 15, 2022
Evidence from Three Global Crises
Science is getting harder
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 31, 2022
Evidence that discoveries are getting smaller on average
How common is independent discovery?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 21, 2022
Relatively common for ideas we know will be big, but not so much for the rest
Do Academic Citations Measure the Impact of New Ideas?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 01, 2022
Yes, but with some serious caveats
Contingency and Science
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 07, 2022
Science can follow more than one path
Science and Technology
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 11, 2022
What is the link between science and technology
Innovation at the Office
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 17, 2022
Very close physical proximity helps people discover each other, if they wouldn't otherwise
What if we could automate invention?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Sep 06, 2022
Growth theory in the shadow of artificial general intelligence
How Science Works (or Doesn't)
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 13, 2023
A guide to the functioning of the modern scientific ecosystem, excluding issues related to publication bias
Publication Biases in Science
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 13, 2023
A guide to articles about publication bias
Remote Breakthroughs
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Oct 18, 2022
Remote teams have traditionally been bad at breakthrough innovation, but things may have changed
Age and the Impact of Innovations
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Dec 17, 2022
Average impact falls but the hits keep coming
Age and the Nature of Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jan 04, 2023
New ideas vs deep expertise; conceptual vs experimental innovation
Geography of Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 13, 2023
A guide to articles about how place affects innovation
How Innovation is Changing
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 13, 2023
A guide to how how innovation has changed over time
Markets and Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 13, 2023
A guide to how markets impact innovation
The Nature of Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 14, 2023
A guide to articles about various models of innovation, and evidence related to their utility.
Study of Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 14, 2023
A guide to posts related to methodological questions in the study of innovation.
Traits of Innovative Agents
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 14, 2023
A guide to the kinds of characteristics correlated with innovative people, groups, and organizations.
The Rest
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 08, 2023
A guide to some of the articles here that don't quite fit into other categories (yet)
Innovators Who Immigrate
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jan 31, 2023
Big impacts for people who move to countries where science is happening
Local Learning
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 25, 2023
Evidence that local interaction leads to deeper engagement with new ideas
Biases Against Risky Research
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 31, 2023
What if risk aversion is a lot of little biases that add up?
Can taste beat peer review?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Apr 22, 2023
Suggestive evidence says yes, but we need to know more
What does peer review know?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Apr 18, 2023
It knows a bit!
When Technology Goes Bad
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 16, 2023
Models of economic growth where sometimes technology gets you killed
The Size of Firms and the Nature of Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
and
Arnaud Dyèvre
AD
Published: Jun 02, 2023
Big firms do things differently
How to Impede Technological Progress
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 12, 2023
Raise the cost of research, or reduce the rewards of it
Geography and What Gets Researched
by
Matt Clancy
and
Caroline Fry
CF
Published: Aug 08, 2023
The salience of local problems
Big Firms Have Different Incentives
by
Matt Clancy
and
Arnaud Dyèvre
AD
Published: Aug 23, 2023
A reason large firms conduct R&D at the same rate as small ones, despite (apparently) lower R&D productivity
Test Index
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 24, 2023
Testing alternative ways of displaying the index entries
Literature Reviews and Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Oct 02, 2023
Let's get meta
When Research Over There Isn't Helpful Here
by
Matt Clancy
and
Caroline Fry
CF
Published: Nov 17, 2023
Limits to the universality of new discoveries
Teachers and the Transmission of Excellence
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Dec 15, 2023
Disentangling selection and training
Teaching Innovative Entrepreneurship
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Feb 17, 2024
Boosting innovation by teaching people to be tech entrepreneurs?
Training enhances the value of new technology
by
Matt Clancy
and
Karthik Tadepalli
KT
Published: Mar 20, 2024
One reason technology doesn't diffuse more quickly - you need to know how to use it well
How many inventions are patented?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 29, 2024
Less than half, more than zero
Patents (Weakly) Predict Innovation
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 29, 2024
Correlations between patents and other innovation proxies
Do studies based on patents get different results?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 29, 2024
For the sample on New Things Under the Sun, not really
Can We Learn About Innovation From Patent Data?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Mar 29, 2024
The definitive New Things Under the Sun post.
Students Get Interested In What Their Mentors Are Interested In
by
Matt Clancy
Published: May 02, 2024
Transmission of innovative taste?
When the Robots Take Your Job
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 03, 2024
Some Intuitions From Recent Models of Automation
Prediction or Science Fiction?
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 07, 2024
A collection of the more far out articles on New Things
Twitter and the Spread of Academic Knowledge
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jun 19, 2024
Serendipity without physical proximity? Maybe, maybe not.
Incentives to Invent at Universities
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Jul 26, 2024
More complicated than it seems at first
The Decline in Writing About Progress
by
Matt Clancy
Published: Aug 15, 2024
The rise and fall of our interest in progress?
Training Scientists in Low and Middle Income Countries
by
Matt Clancy
and
Caroline Fry
CF
Published: Nov 22, 2024
The evidence is thin, but we think it probably works!