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The Life Cycle of Inventors Past and Present

Paper Session

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM

Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Meeting Room 309
Hosted By: National Economic Association & American Economic Association
  • Chair: Lisa Cook, Michigan State University

The Lifecycle of Inventors

Alex Bell
,
Harvard University
Raj Chetty
,
Stanford University and NBER
Xavier Jaravel
,
Stanford University
Neviana Petkova
,
U.S. Treasury Department
John Van Reenen
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NBER, and Centre for Economic Performance

Abstract

We characterize the lives of 1.2 million inventors in the United States by linking patent records to tax data. Tracking these inventors from birth through their careers, we establish three empirical results that shed light on the key factors that determine who becomes an inventor. First, rates of innovation vary substantially by parent income, race, and gender. Differences in ability account for relatively little of these gaps and inventors from under-represented groups do not have higher quality patents on average, contrary to existing models of rational sorting. Second, exposure to innovation during childhood is strongly associated with growing up to be an inventor. This relationship is likely to be causal: growing up in an area or in a family with a high innovation rate in a particular technology class leads to a higher probability of patenting in exactly that technology class (relative to other classes). Third, the private returns to innovation are highly skewed and are typically earned many years after career choices are made. We formalize and calibrate an inventor lifecycle model that matches these facts to show that policies increasing the innovation-related exposure rates of disadvantaged children have more potential to increase innovation rates than increasing the private returns to innovation.

Missing Women and African Americans, Innovation, and Economic Growth

Lisa Cook
,
Michigan State University
Yanyan Yang
,
Claremont Graduate University

Abstract

The process of converting invention to innovation is fundamental to economic growth but remains poorly understood. This paper uses data from the Survey of Doctoral Recipients to examine the determinants of patent and commercialization activity among PhD-holders and, more importantly, for the first time, those who commercialize their inventions over time. Recent studies have shown that rates of patenting and commercialization of ideas by women and African Americans have lagged those of U.S. inventors. What accounts for these differences in patenting and commercialization? Consistent with earlier research, we find that African Americans and women apply for patents 54 and 55 percent less than men, patent 54 and 60 percent less than men, and commercialize their patents 55 and 60 percent than men. We find that those who commercialize their patents over time are productive in research, are at large firms, are in the physical sciences and engineering, and are largely neither women nor African Americans. Given the important progression from basic research to invention to commercialization of ideas to higher living standards, we estimate that GDP per capita could rise by 0.88 percent to 4.6 percent with the inclusion of more women and African Americans in the initial stages of the process of innovation.

The Social Origins of Inventors

Philippe Aghion
,
College of France
Ufuk Akcigit
,
University of Chicago and NBER
Ari Hyytinen
,
Jyvaskyla University
Otto Toivanen
,
KU Leuven

Abstract

In this paper we merge three datasets - individual income data, patenting data, and IQ data - to analyze the determinants of an individual's probability of inventing. We find that: (i) parental income matters even after controlling for other background variables and for IQ, yet the estimated impact of parental income is greatly diminished once parental education and the individual's IQ are controlled for; (ii) IQ has both a direct effect on the probability of inventing an indirect impact through education. The effect of IQ is larger for inventors than for medical doctors or lawyers. The impact of IQ is robust to controlling for unobserved family characteristics by focusing on potential inventors with brothers close in age. We also provide evidence on the importance of social family interactions, by looking at biological versus non-biological parents. Finally, we find a positive and significant interaction effect between IQ and father income, which suggests a misallocation of talents to innovation.

Last Place: The Intersection Between Ethnicity, Gender, and Race in Biomedical Authorship

Gerald Marschke
,
State University of New York-Albany
Allison Nunez
,
State University of New York-Albany
Bruce Weinberg
,
Ohio State University, IZA, and NBER
Huifeng Yu
,
State University of New York-Albany

Abstract

This paper investigates how ethnicity, gender, and race are related to the probability of being last author on MEDLINE articles (in biomedical science, last author runs the lab and/or is the principal investigator, which is an indicator of career independence). We combine MEDLINE publication data with three additional databases and use machine learning to clean, combine, and impute a range of information. In addition to studying the relationship between last author position, ethnicity, gender, and race, we leverage the massive size of our data to highlight the importance of intersectionality, the idea that ethnicity, gender, and race are not necessarily additive, but interact to determine experiences and outcomes. This analysis is timely because of serious concerns with underrepresentation of women and minorities in biomedicine and other STEM fields.
Discussant(s)
Jay Bhattacharya
,
Stanford University and NBER
Kaye Husbands Fealing
,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Nathan Goldschlag
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Mikko Packalen
,
University of Waterloo
JEL Classifications
  • O3 - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
  • J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers