How Do Travel Costs Shape Collaboration?

80 Pages Posted: 15 Apr 2016 Last revised: 24 Mar 2019

See all articles by Christian Catalini

Christian Catalini

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management; Diem Association and Diem Networks US; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Christian Fons-Rosen

University of California, Merced

Patrick Gaulé

Charles University in Prague - CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Multiple version iconThere are 4 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 24, 2019

Abstract

We develop a simple theoretical framework for thinking about how geographic frictions, and in particular travel costs, shape scientists' collaboration decisions and the types of projects that are developed locally versus over distance. We then take advantage of a quasi-experiment - the introduction of new routes by a low-cost airline - to test the predictions of the theory. Results show that travel costs constitute an important friction to collaboration: after a low-cost airline enters, the number of collaborations increases between 0.3 and 1.1 times, a result that is robust to multiple falsification tests and causal in nature. The reduction in geographic frictions is particularly beneficial for high quality scientists that are otherwise embedded in worse local environments. Consistent with the theory, lower travel costs also endogenously change the types of projects scientists engage in at different levels of distance. After the shock, we observe an increase in higher quality and novel projects, as well as projects that take advantage of complementary knowledge and skills between sub-fields, and that rely on specialized equipment. We test the generalizability of our findings from chemistry to a broader dataset of scientific publications, and to a different field where specialized equipment is less likely to be relevant, mathematics. Last, we discuss implications for the formation of collaborative R&D teams over distance.

Keywords: scientific collaboration, geographic frictions, temporary co-location, face-to-face meetings, recombinations of ideas

JEL Classification: 03, R4, L93

Suggested Citation

Catalini, Christian and Fons-Rosen, Christian and Gaulé, Patrick, How Do Travel Costs Shape Collaboration? (March 24, 2019). MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 5172-16, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2764219 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2764219

Christian Catalini (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

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Christian Fons-Rosen

University of California, Merced ( email )

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Patrick Gaulé

Charles University in Prague - CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences ( email )

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Czech Republic

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