An Occupational Approach to Analyzing Regional Invention

The purpose of this working paper is to refine and evaluate the occupation-driven approach for analyzing regional invention suggested by Wojan, Dotzel, and Low ( 2015 ) , who argue that patenting rates should be computed on the subset of workers that might plausibly contribute to patenting. We introduce several modifications to their original analysis, including use of a special tabulation of more detailed occupation data and added controls for regional characteristics that could confound identification of the inventive class — the group of occupations most associated with patent production. We then critically evaluate the findings by implementing a simultaneous equations model of the interrelationship between the composition and productivity of the inventive class. Substitutions of alternative subpopulations of knowledge workers such as the college-educated population for the inventive class allow us to assess the value added of the updated inventive class construct. Simultaneous equations results confirm the existence of an interrelationship between patent production and membership in the inventive class in rural regions and highlight an apparent disarticulation of inventive employment and patent-intensive manufacturing employment in urban areas.
Source: NSF - Statistics on U.S. Science and Engineering Resources - Category: Statistics Source Type: news