Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/228305 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2020-003
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena
Abstract: 
We investigate the geographic concentration of patenting in large cities using a sample of 14 developed countries. There is wide dispersion of the share of patented inventions in large metropolitan areas. South Korea and the US are two extreme outliers where patenting is highly concentrated in large cities. We do not find any general trend that there is a geographic concentration of patents for the period 2000-2014. There is also no general trend that inventors in large cities have more patents than in rural areas (scaling). Hence, while agglomeration economies of large cities may offer advantages for innovation activities, the extent of these advantages is not very large. We conclude that popular theories over-emphasize the importance of large cities for innovation activities.
Subjects: 
Innovation
patents
cities
urban scaling
creativity
JEL: 
O31
R12
O57
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.