Abstract: we investigate the role of political institutions in shaping global knowledge production. Using a newly assembled global dataset covering universities, scientists, publications, Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, and technological breakthroughs from 1900 to the present, we show that institutional quality is a key determinant of scientific production. Countries with high-quality institutions build larger academic sectors and produce more scientific output, including frontier research and Nobel Prize-winning discoveries. Event-study evidence from sharp institutional improvements and deteriorations confirms that changes in political institutions lead to sustained shifts in scientific production. These effects operate through both a larger research workforce and higher productivity per researcher. Institutions also shape the breadth of inquiry: autocracies concentrate research in a narrower set of fields, achieving excellence in some areas but lacking the broad exploration of ideas that characterizes democracies. Finally, countries with better institutions not only produce more published research but also generate more path-breaking technological discoveries, including those not published in academic journals.

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