Innovation and education. Is there a "nerd effect"?

Autor/in	Goldbach, Stefan
Titel	Innovation and education. Is there a "nerd effect"?
Quelle	Darmstadt: Techn. Univ., Inst. für Volkswirtschaftslehre (2012), 28 S., 330 KB PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	Discussion papers in economics. 210
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monographie; Graue Literatur
Schlagwörter	Schätzung; Deutschland; Innovation; Unternehmer; Unternehmensgründung; Schätzung; Technischer Beruf; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsabschluss; Unternehmensgründung; Technischer Beruf; Unternehmer; Ökonom; Arbeitspapier; Innovation; Deutschland
Abstract	This paper investigates whether entrepreneurs with technical education are more innovative in high-tech industries than economists. The main contribution to the literature is in using the type of education as main explanatory variable for innovation. To analyze this question, the KfW/ZEW Start-Up Panel between 2005 and 2007 is used. Two independent OLS regressions are conducted for entrepreneurs with university degree and practical education. The results suggest that education matters for individuals with a university degree in high-tech industries but not for people with practical education. Having an economics degree is correlated with higher innovativeness. Therefore, for the underlying sample we do not find a "nerd effect". The results depend on the underlying definition of innovation, as robustness checks show.
Erfasst von	ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel
Update	2012/3