The Local Supply of Innovators and the Geography of Innovation: Evidence from Green and Brown Technologies

Margherita Gerolimetto, Stefano Magrini () and Alessandro Spiganti
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Margherita Gerolimetto: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Stefano Magrini: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Alessandro Spiganti: University of Genoa

No 2026: 14, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari"

Abstract: We study the causal effect of the local supply of sector-specific innovators on patenting activity across US metropolitan areas, distinguishing between innovators active in carbon-intensive ("brown") and environmentally sustainable ("green") technological fields. Using USPTO patent data from 1990 to 2016, we document a marked shift in the geography of green innovation: while brown patenting has long been concentrated in established hubs, green patents — initially more dispersed — have increasingly converged toward the same locations. We build a theoretical framework in which local patenting activity is driven by the supply of green and brown innovators, investigating how their interaction shapes the innovation process. Empirically, we address endogeneity using a shift-share instrument that combines predetermined local technological specialization with exogenous shocks to foreign innovation across CPC sections. We find that a one-unit increase in the local supply of brown innovators raises patenting activity by approximately 0.8%, an effect that is robust across specifications. Together, these findings suggest that green innovation is becoming increasingly embedded in existing agglomeration ecosystems, with important implications for place-based climate policy.

Keywords: agglomeration; climate change; innovation; spatial distribution; patents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O33 O44 O47 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-uep
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