This study provides the first quantification of buyers' role in the outcome of R&D procurement contracts. We combine together four data sources on US federal R&D contracts, follow-on patented inventions, federal public workforce characteristics, and perception of their work environment. By exploiting the observability of deaths of federal employees, we find that managers' death events negatively affect innovation outcomes: a 1% increase in the share of relevant public officer deaths causes a decline of 32.3% of patents per contract, 20.5% patent citations per contract, and 34.3% patent claims per contract. These effects are driven by the deaths occurring in the 6 months before the contract is awarded, thereby indicating the relevance of the design and award stage relative to ex post contract monitoring. Lower levels of self-reported within-office cooperation also negatively impact R&D outcomes.

中文翻译：

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买家在创新采购中的作用：来自美国军事研发合同的证据


本研究首次量化了买方在研发采购合同结果中的作用。我们将美国联邦研发合同、后续专利发明、联邦公共劳动力特征及其工作环境感知的四个数据源结合在一起。通过利用联邦雇员死亡的可观察性，我们发现管理人员的死亡事件会对创新成果产生负面影响：相关公职人员死亡比例增加 1%，导致每份合同的专利数下降 32.3%，每份专利引用量下降 20.5%。合同，以及每份合同 34.3% 的专利主张。这些影响是由合同授予前 6 个月内发生的死亡事件造成的，从而表明设计和授予阶段与事后合同监测的相关性。自我报告的办公室内合作水平较低也会对研发成果产生负面影响。