Working Paper: NBER ID: w15443
Authors: William R. Kerr
Abstract: We investigate the speed at which clusters of invention for a technology migrate spatially following breakthrough inventions. We identify breakthrough inventions as the top one percent of US inventions for a technology during 1975-1984 in terms of subsequent citations. Patenting growth is significantly higher in cities and technologies where breakthrough inventions occur after 1984 relative to peer locations that do not experience breakthrough inventions. This growth differential in turn depends on the mobility of the technology's labor force, which we model through the extent that technologies depend upon immigrant scientists and engineers. Spatial adjustments are faster for technologies that depend heavily on immigrant inventors. The results qualitatively confirm the mechanism of industry migration proposed in models like Duranton (2007).
Keywords: breakthrough inventions; innovation clusters; immigrant scientists; patenting growth; spatial adjustments
JEL Codes: F2; J4; J6; O3; O4; R1; R3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| breakthrough inventions (O36) | localized patent growth (O54) |
| breakthrough inventions (O36) | subsequent innovation in local areas (O35) |
| immigrant scientists and engineers (J61) | faster spatial adjustments (C49) |
| immigrant inventors (K37) | patenting growth (O39) |