1870
to 1940. How do inventors
respond to evidence that the government isn’t interested in helping them? Abstract:
Recent studies have examined the
effect of political conflict and domestic terrorism on economic and political
outcomes. This paper uses the rise in mass violence between 1870 and 1940 as an
historical experiment for determining the impact of ethnic and political
violence on economic activity, namely patenting. I find that violent acts
account for more than 1100 missing patents compared to 726 actual patents among
African American inventors over this period. Valuable patents decline in
response to major riots and segregation laws. Absence of the rule of law
covaries with declines in patent productivity for white and black inventors,
but this decline is significant only for African American inventors. Patenting
responds positively to declines in violence. These findings imply that ethnic
and political conflict may affect the level, direction, and quality of
invention and economic growth over time.
Via tressiemc.
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