R&D collaboration network of firms

Research and Development (R&D) networks among firms are a prime example of large-scale economic networks. Firms collaborate bilaterally or in small groups to exchange knowledge, this way increasing their knowledge stock. Because most firms are engaged in several collaborations at the same time, a large network emerges. It evolves over time, because firms can leave the network if their costs exceed their benefits, new firms can enter, collaborations are terminated and new collaborations are established. What do we find when analyzing 21.000 research alliances between 15.000 firms over 25 years?

Check out our groundbreaking publications about the empirics of R&D networks and their dynamical modeling by means of agent-based and network approaches.