Ethnic inventors, diversity and innovation in the UK: evidence from patents microdata

Max Nathan

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

Abstract: Ethnic inventors play important roles in US innovation systems, especially in high-tech regions like Silicon Valley. Do ‘ethnicity-innovation’ channels exist elsewhere? This paper investigates, using a new panel of UK patents microdata. In theory, ethnicity might affect positively innovation via ‘star’ migrants, network externalities from co-ethnic groups, or production complementarities from diverse inventor communities. I use the novel ONOMAP name classification system to identify ethnic inventors. Controlling for individuals’ human capital, I find small positive effects of South Asian and Southern European co-ethnic group membership on individual patenting. The overall diversity of inventor communities also helps raise individual inventors’ productivity. I find no hard evidence that ethnic inventors crowd out patenting by majority groups.

Keywords: ethnic inventors; innovation; patents; cultural diversity; diasporas; cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J24 J61 M13 O30 R11 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2011-10
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/58329/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Ethnic Inventors, Diversity and Innovation in the UK: Evidence from Patents Microdata (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:58329

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