Long-Run Innovation Patterns in US Cities: Shifting Landscapes and Technological Change

Joan Crespo and Jesús Peiró-Palomino

Economic Geography, 2025, vol. 101, issue 2-3, 122-154

Abstract: This article studies the dynamics of innovation in the US Core-Based Statistical Areas over a long period (1860–2019), with the production of patents used as a proxy for innovation. The results show that innovation has always been highly concentrated, albeit with alternating periods of greater and lesser concentration. Despite the relative stability of the distribution of innovation, cities have experienced notable movements inside the distribution, which are the result of progressive long-run tendencies. Moreover, a remarkable change in the innovation landscape is found due to cities in the Northwest and Midwest gradually losing ground to cities in the South and the West. Finally, the technological specialization of cities changes rapidly, and the technological life cycle phase conditions cities’ mobility within the innovation distribution. Specialization in growing technologies helps cities to improve their relative position in the distribution, while the opposite is the case for cities that specialize in mature technologies.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00130095.2025.2473955

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