Joshua Graff Zivin Collaborates Research with Pierre Azoulay, MIT
Scientists: This man has your number
02/29/2012
MIT News Office
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First, at a conference in 2002, economist Luis Garicano, now of the London School of Economics, took an interest in Azoulay's thesis research. "Luis basically explained to me what my paper was about," Azoulay says. "I'll only give myself credit for one thing, which is that I listened." Ultimately, Azoulay's findings shed light on modern economic theories of the firm: Because knowledge-intensive research is harder to measure, firms keep it in-house, while outsourcing assignments that are easier to measure, and hence monitor. By 2004, Azoulay had published a cleaned-up version of the paper in the American Economic Review (AER), an unusually prestigious venue for a young professor.
Soon thereafter, Azoulay gave a talk at Columbia and was peppered with questions by an audience member who knew a lot about drug trials. It turned out to be Graff Zivin. "We talked afterward and said, 'Let's get coffee,'" Azoulay says. Before long, they decided to collaborate on studying the effects superstar scientists have on their disciplines; Azoulay now calls Graff Zivin his "partner in crime."
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Joshua Graff Zivin is Associate Professor of International Relations and Pacific Studies and Affiliated Faculty of Economics. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Research Director for International Environmental and Health Studies at the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC).
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