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Deborah A. Strumsky
Assistant Professor
OFFICE: 429 McEniry
PHONE: 704-687-5934
E-MAIL: dstrumsk@uncc.edu
HOMEPAGE:
SHORT VITAE: To be added later
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TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS:
• Technological Innovation
• Spatial Statistics and Econometrics
• Social Network Analysis
• Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship
DEGREES:
Ph.D. (2004) Regional Science, Cornell University
M.S. (1999) Regional Science, Cornell University
B.S. (1996) Economics, University of Southern Maine
PROFILE:
I have a long standing interest in how the myriad characteristics—socio-economic,
technological, political, institutional, organizational and cultural—of
metropolitan areas interact to foster invention and innovation,
hence sustain economic growth. Over the past several years I have
pursued a variety of research questions related to invention and
innovation in metropolitan areas using patent data. Currently, I
am working on three projects, the first is measures metropolitan
convergence in invention applying spatial autocorrelation and regression
methods to assess the influence of knowledge spillovers on the geographical
distribution and growth of invention. In a second project, I am
exploring the role distance, tacit knowldge transfer and team size
play in subsequent inventor productivity. A third, measures venture
capital dipsersion and high-tech industry co-agglomeration.
My most recent research studied the affect of non-compete contract
on inventor mobility. It is now a common place assumption that the
economic well-being of regions and cities depends on a location's
ability to attract highly-skilled and creative individuals. We frequently
observe the movement of these individuals across firms, regions,
cities and countries. This mobility entails a positive externality,
since not only do the moving inventors get exposure to new people
and thus new ideas, but also their new colleagues get exposed as
well, similarly benefiting. Knowledge worker mobility is thus a
mechanism for bringing about knowledge spillovers. Questions remain,
such as why do inventors move? What economic rationale underlies
their mobility? What are the consequences of their moving for the
individual, for firms, and for the regional or urban economy? Do
these spillovers effect productivity, and if so how are these spillovers
to be measured?
In the past year, co-authors and I published research on the scaling
relationship between the size of metropolitan areas and inventive
activity. We present our initial results, which include the finding
that the scaling relationship between patenting activity and city
size is, in fact, superlinear. In another collaboration we explored
the effects on patenting productivity of the salient structural
features of the social networks linking inventors within and across
metropolitan areas in the United States. The results demonstrated
that while the structural properties of metropolitan inventor networks
do affect patenting productivity, the network effects are not nearly
as strong as many have assumed as the socio-economic characteristics
of metropolitan areas matter more for inventive productivity.
My interest in location-specific innovation has led me to study
venture capital activity. Venture capital has come to play a crucial
role in the formation of high-technology firms and the commercialization
of innovations in the United States. Given that “hands on”
advice and industry expertise are distinguishing features of venture
capital investments, and given the observed differences in venture
capital activity across regions and metropolitan areas, the following
question arises: does venture capital flow to where the new ideas
are or do innovative firms locate close to VC firms? I have applied
methods from spatial statistics and econometrics in order to quantify
the extent to which VC activity is spatially concentrated and correlated,
and have tested various hypotheses regarding new firm location decisions
and VC investments.
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