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

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Darmstadt Discussion Papers in Economics ; No. 210

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: General ; Entrepreneurship ; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
• Subject: entrepreneurship ; innovation ; education ; Unternehmer ; Innovation ; Bildungsabschluss ; Technische Berufe ; Ökonomen ; Unternehmensgründung ; Schätzung ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Goldbach, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Technische Universität Darmstadt, Department of Law and Economics
• (where): Darmstadt
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/84869
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET