Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/260783 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 9653
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper documents differences across higher-education courses in the coverage of frontier knowledge. Comparing the text of 1.7M syllabi and 20M academic articles, we construct the “education-innovation gap,” a syllabus’s relative proximity to old and new knowledge. We show that courses differ greatly in the extent to which they cover frontier knowledge. More selective and better funded schools, and those enrolling socio-economically advantaged students, teach more frontier knowledge. Instructors play a big role in shaping course content; research-active instructors teach more frontier knowledge. Students from schools teaching more frontier knowledge are more likely to complete a PhD, produce more patents, and earn more after graduation.
Subjects: 
education
innovation
syllabi
instructors
text analysis
inequality
JEL: 
I23
I24
I26
J24
O33
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.