Local labour tasks and patenting in US commuting zones

Marialuisa Divella, Alessia Lo Turco and Alessandro Sterlacchini ()

Journal of Economic Geography, 2023, vol. 23, issue 5, 1097-1119

Abstract: In this article, we adopt a task approach to measure the local pool of capabilities which can more effectively spur innovation. By focusing on the core activities that workers undertake in their jobs, we build an abstract task intensity measure of occupations to proxy the ability in analysing and solving complex problems, as well as in coordinating and integrating people with different knowledge endowments, that should be especially relevant for the process of invention and innovation. We thus estimate the relationship between the local abstract intensity and the inventive performance, proxied by granted patents, of US Commuting Zones (CZs) during the period 2000–2015. The evidence provided, robust to a wide array of sensitivity checks, points to the extent of workers’ engagement in abstract tasks across CZs as a crucial determinant of the local inventive activity.

Keywords: Human capital; labour tasks; local abstract intensity; patents; US Commuting Zones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O33 R10 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Working Paper: LOCAL LABOUR TASKS AND PATENTING IN US COMMUTING ZONES (2023)
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