The Geography of Unconventional Innovation

Ruben Gaetani and Enrico Berkes

No 896, 2015 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: Using a newly assembled dataset of narrowly georeferenced patents, we document that innovation activity is not as concentrated in densely populated areas as commonly believed: suburban regions are responsible for a substantial share of the innovation produced. Nevertheless, high-density areas disproportionately generate innovation of unconventional nature. We provide causal evidence for a mechanism that can generate this pattern: unconventional ideas are more likely to emerge when people interact in a dense and technologically diverse environment. An endogenous growth model with heterogeneous innovation and spatial sorting reveals that optimal place-based policy in the U.S. would foster urbanization to promote unconventional ideas, at the cost of sacrificing growth and inducing higher congestion.

Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Journal Article: The Geography of Unconventional Innovation (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed015:896

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