Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality

Tom Kemeny, Sergio Petralia and Michael Storper

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Although technological change is widely credited as driving the last 200 years of economic growth, its role in shaping patterns of inequality remains under-explored. Drawing parallels across two industrial revolutions in the United States, this paper provides new evidence of a relationship between highly disruptive forms of innovation and spatial inequality. Using the universe of patents granted between 1920 and 2010 by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), we identify disruptive innovations through their rapid growth, complementarity with other innovations and widespread use. We then assign more and less disruptive innovations to subnational regions in the geography of the United States. We document three findings that are new to the literature. First, disruptive innovations exhibit distinctive spatial clustering in phases understood to be those in which industrial revolutions reshape the economy; they are increasingly dispersed in other periods. Second, we discover that the ranks of locations that capture the most disruptive innovation are relatively unstable across industrial revolutions. Third, regression estimates suggest a role for disruptive innovation in regulating overall patterns of spatial output and income inequality.

Keywords: industrial revolutions; inequality; innovation; regional development; technological change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 O30 O33 O51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2022-07-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-his, nep-ino, nep-pay, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Regional Studies, 20, July, 2022. ISSN: 0034-3404

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Working Paper: Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:115953

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