Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2010
  • Chapter
  • Agglomeration Economics

The Agglomeration of U.S. Ethnic Inventors

By: William R. Kerr
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

The ethnic composition of US inventors is undergoing a significant transformation - with deep impacts for the overall agglomeration of US innovation. This study applies an ethnic-name database to individual US patent records to explore these trends with greater detail. The contributions of Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers to US technology formation increase dramatically in the 1990s. At the same time, these ethnic inventors became more spatially concentrated across US cities. The combination of these two factors helps stop and reverse long-term declines in overall inventor agglomeration evident in the 1970s and 1980s. The heightened ethnic agglomeration is particularly evident in industry patents for high-tech sectors, and similar trends are not found in institutions constrained from agglomerating (e.g., universities, government).

Keywords

Information Technology; Geographic Location; Patents; Ethnicity; City; Innovation and Invention; United States

Citation

Kerr, William R. "The Agglomeration of U.S. Ethnic Inventors." In Agglomeration Economics, edited by Edward Glaeser, 237–276. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
  • SSRN

About The Author

William R. Kerr

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • June 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Can Goodr Fight Food Insecurity at Scale?

    By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr
    • May 2022
    • Faculty Research

    RacingThePlanet’s 20-Year Marathon

    By: Daniel Isenberg and William Kerr
    • May 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Chime Solutions

    By: Shai Bernstein, William R. Kerr, Jim Matheson, Christopher Stanton and Ria Mazumdar
More from the Author
  • Can Goodr Fight Food Insecurity at Scale? By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr
  • RacingThePlanet’s 20-Year Marathon By: Daniel Isenberg and William Kerr
  • Chime Solutions By: Shai Bernstein, William R. Kerr, Jim Matheson, Christopher Stanton and Ria Mazumdar
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College