从科学中撤退：1970年代美国军方对大学研究撤资的长期影响
Retreating from Science: The Long-Run Effects of the 1970s U.S. Military Disinvestment from University Research
NBER Working Papers · 2026 · [{"name": "Daniel P. Gross", "affiliation": []}, {"name": "Bhaven N. Sampat", "affiliation": []}, {"name": "Hansen Zhang", "affiliation": []}]
中文摘要
1945年至1970年间，美国国防部是美国大学研究的最大资助者之一，也是物理科学和工程领域最重要的资助者。随后的政治压力导致这一资助到1970年代中期下降了近三分之二，且从未完全恢复。我们表明，这些削减波及了整个美国研究体系，导致大学科学家数量、博士培养和研究产出随之下降。1970年受国防部资助的早期职业科学家比同行更有可能离开大学，其中许多人转向了工业界。尽管有些人获得专利的可能性有所增加，但总体而言，这似乎减少了相关技术领域中与科学相关的创新，并压缩了美国在昔日由国防部主导领域的领导地位。这些影响延伸至与军事目标更密切相关的结果：进入国防工业基础的博士减少了，且在受影响最大的技术领域，与科学相关的国防专利最初的增长让位于长期的下降。
Abstract
Between 1945 and 1970, the U.S. Department of Defense was one of the country's largest funders of university research, and the most important in the physical sciences and engineering. Political pressures subsequently led to this funding declining nearly two-thirds by the mid-1970s and never fully recovering. We show that these cuts were felt across the U.S. research system, with ensuing declines in university scientists, PhD production, and research output. Early career scientists who were DoD-funded in 1970 were more likely than peers to leave universities, with many moving to industry. Though some became more likely to patent, in the aggregate, this appears to have reduced science-linked innovation in related technologies and compressed U.S. leadership in formerly DoD-driven fields. These effects extend to outcomes more closely related to military objectives: fewer PhDs entered the defense industrial base, and an initial increase in science-linked defense patenting in the most exposed technology areas gave way to a long-run decline.