Yes, linking to authority sources makes your own content more valuable and thus possibly more authoritative, it is not necessarily something that will make a big impact in rankings all on its own, but it is believed to have a positive impact in conjunction with other factors. Imagine, from a human perspective, having a link to the sources of information mentioned in the article makes all the sense in the world and for a better user experience, which is what the search engines aim for when giving preeminence to a particular website.