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The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors

William R. Kerr
Harvard University - Entrepreneurial Management Unit

July 17, 2008

Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Working Paper No. 09-003

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).

Keywords: Agglomeration, Innovation, Research and Development, Patents, Scientists, Engineers, Inventors, Ethnicity, Immigration

JEL Classifications: F15, F22, J44, J61, O31

Working Paper Series

Date posted: July 17, 2008 ; Last revised: June 02, 2009

Suggested Citation

Kerr, William R., The Agglomeration of US Ethnic Inventors (July 17, 2008). Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Working Paper No. 09-003. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1162226

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Contact Information

William R. Kerr (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Entrepreneurial Management Unit ( email )

Soldiers Field Road
Morgan 270C
Boston, MA 02163
United States