Full Citation
Title: Racial Discrimination and Lost Innovation: Evidence from US Inventors, 1895–1925
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 978-80-7344-671-0
ISSN: 2788-0443
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Abstract: How can racial discrimination harm innovation? We study this question using data on US inventors linked to population censuses in 1895-1925. Our novel identification strategy leverages plausibly exogenous variation in the timing of lynchings and the name of the victims. We find an immediate and persistent decrease in patents granted to inventors who share their names with the victims of lynchings, but only when victims are Black. We hypothesize that lynchings accentuate the racial content of the victim's name to patent examiners, who do not observe inventor race from patent applications. We interpret these findings as evidence of discrimination by patent examiners and provide evidence against alternative mechanisms. for in-sightful comments and discussions, as well as seminar audiences at Bocconi University, CERGE-EI, LSE, Northwestern University , RWI Essen, and the UNCE Workshop for helpful suggestions. We are grateful to Enrico Berkes for sharing data with us. Michael Giordano provided outstanding research assistance by verifying the content of newspaper articles. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Center for Economic History at Northwestern University, Fondazione Romeo and Enrica Invernizzi, the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the UNCE project (UNCE/HUM/035). All errors are our own.
Url: https://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp749.pdf
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Authors: Coluccia, Davide M; Dossi, Gaia; Ottinger, Sebastian
Series Title: Working Paper Series
Publication Number: 749
Institution: Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute
Pages: 1-74
Publisher Location: Prague
Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data
Topics: Race and Ethnicity
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