Political Sentiment and Innovation: Evidence from Patenters

Joseph Engelberg, Runjing Lu, William Mullins and Richard R. Townsend

No 31619, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We document political sentiment effects on US inventors. Democratic inventors are more likely to patent (relative to Republicans) after the 2008 election of Obama but less likely after the 2016 election of Trump. These effects are 2-3 times as strong among politically active partisans and are present even within firms over time. Patenting by immigrant inventors (relative to non-immigrants) also falls following Trump’s election. Finally, we show partisan concentration by technology class and firm. This concentration aggregates up to more patenting in Democrat-dominated technologies (e.g., Biotechnology) compared to Republican-dominated technologies (e.g., Weapons) following the 2008 election of Obama.

JEL-codes: D72 J24 M5 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-lma, nep-pol and nep-tid
Note: LS POL PR
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