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The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors

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  • William R. Kerr

    (Harvard Business School, Entrepreneurial Management Unit)

Abstract

The ethnic composition of US inventors is undergoing a significant transformation - with deep impacts for the overall agglomeration of US innovation. This study applies an ethnic-name database to individual US patent records to explore these trends with greater detail. The contributions of Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers to US technology formation increase dramatically in the 1990s. At the same time, these ethnic inventors became more spatially concentrated across US cities. The combination of these two factors helps stop and reverse long-term declines in overall inventor agglomeration evident in the 1970s and 1980s. The heightened ethnic agglomeration is particularly evident in industry patents for high-tech sectors, and similar trends are not found in institutions constrained from agglomerating (e.g., universities, government).

Suggested Citation

  • William R. Kerr, 2008. "The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-003, Harvard Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:09-003
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    Cited by:

    1. Valentina Di Iasio & Ernest Miguelez, 2022. "The ties that bind and transform: knowledge remittances, relatedness and the direction of technical change [Brain drain or brain bank? The impact of skilled emigration on poor-country innovation]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 423-448.
    2. William R. Kerr, 2010. "Breakthrough Inventions and Migrating Clusters of Innovation," NBER Chapters, in: Cities and Entrepreneurship, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Nathan, Max & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2016. "Do inventors talk to strangers? On proximity and collaborative knowledge creation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 177-194.
    4. Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr, 2009. "Local Industrial Conditions and Entrepreneurship: How Much of the Spatial Distribution Can We Explain?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 623-663, September.
    5. Abdullah M. Khan, 2014. "Impact of Employment Agglomeration on Patented Innovation in U.S. Manufacturing Industries from 1986 to 2008," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 4(10), pages 25-42, October.
    6. C. Fritz Foley & William R. Kerr, 2013. "Ethnic Innovation and U.S. Multinational Firm Activity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1529-1544, July.
    7. Stefano Breschi & Francesco Lissoni & Gianluca Tarasconi, 2014. "Inventor Data for Research on Migration and Innovation: A Survey and a Pilot," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 17, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    8. William R. Kerr & William F. Lincoln, 2010. "The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 473-508, July.
    9. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    10. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2018. "Global Collaborative Patents," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 235-272, July.
    11. Stefano Breschi & Francesco Lissoni & Ernest Miguelez, 2017. "Foreign-origin inventors in the USA: testing for diaspora and brain gain effects," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(5), pages 1009-1038.
    12. William R. Kerr, 2010. "The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors," NBER Chapters, in: Agglomeration Economics, pages 237-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Francesco LISSONI, 2016. "Migration and Innovation Diffusion : An Eclectic Survey," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2016-11, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    14. Wipo, 2013. "World Intellectual Property Indicators, 2013 edition," WIPO Economics & Statistics Series, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division, number 2013:941, April.
    15. Nathan, Max, 2011. "Ethnic inventors, diversity and innovation in the UK: evidence from patents microdata," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58329, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Claudia Noumedem Temgoua, 2018. "Highly skilled migration and the internationalization of knowledge," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2018-16, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    18. William R. Kerr, 2007. "The Ethnic Composition of US Inventors," Harvard Business School Working Papers 08-006, Harvard Business School.
    19. Ajay Agrawal, 2014. "Diaspora Networks, Knowledge Flows and Brain Drain," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 15, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    20. Marino, Alba & Mudambi, Ram & Perri, Alessandra & Scalera, Vittoria G., 2020. "Ties that bind: Ethnic inventors in multinational enterprises’ knowledge integration and exploitation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(9).
    21. Fumihiko Isada & Yuriko Isada, 2015. "Trans-nationalisation of a main office in a multinational firm," International Journal of Business and Management, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, vol. 3(4), pages 15-40, November.
    22. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2018. "Global Collaborative Patents," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 235-272, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agglomeration; Innovation; Research and Development; Patents; Scientists; Engineers; Inventors; Ethnicity; Immigration.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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