How Do Institutions of Higher Education Affect Local Invention? Evidence from the Establishment of U.S. Colleges

121 Pages Posted: 20 Nov 2017 Last revised: 30 Mar 2020

See all articles by Michael Andrews

Michael Andrews

University of Maryland Baltimore County

Date Written: March 28, 2020

Abstract

I use data on site selection decisions for a subset of U.S. colleges to identify "runner-up" locations that were strongly considered to become the sites of new colleges but were ultimately not chosen for as-good-as-random reasons. When using runner-up counties as counterfactuals, establishing a college causes 48% more patents per year. Linking patents to novel college yearbook data reveal that only 5% of patents in a college's county came from alumni or faculty of that college. I find no difference in patenting between establishing colleges and establishing other types of institutions, nor between colleges with different focuses on technical fields.

Keywords: Innovation, Patents, Economic History, Education, Colleges

JEL Classification: I, N, O, R

Suggested Citation

Andrews, Michael, How Do Institutions of Higher Education Affect Local Invention? Evidence from the Establishment of U.S. Colleges (March 28, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3072565 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3072565

Michael Andrews (Contact Author)

University of Maryland Baltimore County ( email )

1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/michaeljeffreyandrews/home?authuser=0

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