About Us > Faculty & Staff > Faculty > Laura Schultz

Assistant Professor of Nanoeconomics

Read Professor Schultz's Nanotechnology Now Column: Using Patents to Track the Development of Nanotechnology

Degrees:

• Ph.D., Economics, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 2007
• B.A., Math and Computer Science, Hood College, Frederick, MD, 1999

Areas of research:

• R&D investment
• R&D collaborations
• National Innovation System
• Intangible capital

Description of research:

Dr. Schultz's research is based on investment in innovation. While at the Bureau of Economic analysis she took part in developing the BEA/NSF R&D Satellite Accounts. The project measured national investment in R&D intangible capital. Her research continues in that vein, examining the returns to investment in intangible capital. She has examined the rates of return to R&D investment in the manufacturing sector and continues her work by examining the differences in industrial and government investment.

She also is interested in the role of R&D spillovers play in the national innovation system. Often firms invest in the creation of knowledge that eventually becomes publicly available, spillover over to benefit competitors. Dr. Schultz's research examines how firms work together to maximize the benefits received from spillovers. Working within CNSE provides an excellent opportunity to view firsthand the collaborations between firms designed to increase the returns to R&D through joint research efforts. Her work on R&D collaborations will develop a model to allow firms to identify the profit maximizing research alliances.

Publications:

BEA/NSF R&D Satellite Account: Preliminary Estimates, with S. Okubo, C. Robbins, C. Moylan, B.Sliker, L. Mataloni, Survey of Current Business, December 2006.

Guide to Computing and Reporting the Life-Cycle Cost of Environmental Management Projects, with S. Weber (NIST) NISTIR 6968 (Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology, March 2003).

Working Papers:

Changes in the Role of R&D in Industry Productivity: 1958-1998, July 2007.

Comparing the Returns to Privately and Publicly Financed Research and Development, January 2007.

Estimating the Returns to Private Sector R&D Investment, June 2006.

The BEA R&D Satellite Account: A Long-Term Issue of Estimating Domestic Returns and Spillovers from Business R&D, with S. Okubo (BEA), December 2005.

A Boolean Approach to Modeling Logical Constraints, November 2002.

Honors and Awards:

Department of Commerce Bronze Medal

NIST/BFRL Communicator Award