Changing the Perception of Time: Railroads, Access to Knowledge and Innovation in Nineteenth Century France

51 Pages Posted: 21 Dec 2022

See all articles by Georgios Tsiachtsiras

Georgios Tsiachtsiras

University of Bristol; University of Bath - School of Management

Date Written: December 8, 2022

Abstract

This paper exploits an episode of French history to study the relationship between the roll-out of railroads and the rise of the innovation activity. I take advantage of the exogenous variation in railway access arising from a straight-line time variant instrument to document that access to rail network increases the regional innovation activity, as it is proxied by the number of patents in the historical database of the National Institute of Industrial Property of France. I employ an access to knowledge index as an underlying mechanism behind the main results to show that, by reducing least-cost distances between cantons, railways intensified the influence exerted by neighboring concentrations of inventors, thereby triggering the spread of patenting. Next, I study the role of a global city, such as Paris, on the diffusion of new technologies. To do that, I have first to use a machine learning algorithm for text analysis and to assign a technology to the patent applications without a technological class. Finally, I introduce a back of the envelope exercise based on canals and roads to show that in the absence of railroads the invention rate of the French cantons would have been, on average, 24.14% lower.

Keywords: innovation, patent data, railroads, access to knowledge

JEL Classification: L92, N73, O31, O33, P25, R12

Suggested Citation

Tsiachtsiras, Georgios, Changing the Perception of Time: Railroads, Access to Knowledge and Innovation in Nineteenth Century France (December 8, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4297205 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4297205

Georgios Tsiachtsiras (Contact Author)

University of Bristol ( email )

University of Bristol,
Senate House, Tyndall Avenue
Bristol, Avon BS8 ITH
United Kingdom

University of Bath - School of Management ( email )

Claverton Down
Bath, BA2 7AY
United Kingdom

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