How War Shapes Science: Empirical evidence from 60 million publications
P4-02
Presented by: Tore Wig
How is the production of knowledge affected by war? Some claim that war is an engine
of innovation, while there are several examples of war being a destructive force. This paper
considers the effects of civil and interstate wars on international published research, combining
data on 60 million publications from the ISI web of science with conflict data, 1950-2020.. Using a synthetic diff-in-diff framework, we first consider whether war has an overall impact on research publications per capita, while moving on to look at different academic fields. Finally, we use geolocated data on universities and their publication output to see how conflict-activity
affects science in the locations where conficts take place.
of innovation, while there are several examples of war being a destructive force. This paper
considers the effects of civil and interstate wars on international published research, combining
data on 60 million publications from the ISI web of science with conflict data, 1950-2020.. Using a synthetic diff-in-diff framework, we first consider whether war has an overall impact on research publications per capita, while moving on to look at different academic fields. Finally, we use geolocated data on universities and their publication output to see how conflict-activity
affects science in the locations where conficts take place.