The Democratization of Invention in the American South: Antebellum and Post Bellum Technology Markets in the United States

William Phillips ()
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William Phillips: Department of Economics, Tulane University

No 804, Working Papers from Tulane University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Patenting expanded rapidly across the post bellum South as its transportation network filled in and city growth extended markets. This was consistent with Sokoloff and Khan (1990), who demonstrated the elastic supply of patentable ideas in early America. Successful innovation required that inventors could or did sell their property rights through "assignment" to those who commercialized new technology. The assignment characteristics of 1912 southern patents were examined. Southern "border" state patents had a higher rate of marketable assignments than those issued to residents in the Deep South. Greater commercialization of patents in border state cities accounted for most of this difference.

Keywords: post-bellum South; invention; patents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N71 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2008-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul0804.pdf First version, 2008 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tul:wpaper:0804

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