2021
Working Paper
HBS Working Paper Series

Winner Takes All? Tech Clusters, Population Centers, and the Spatial Transformation of U.S. Invention

By: Brad Chattergoon and William R. Kerr

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:52

Abstract

U.S. invention has become increasingly concentrated around major tech centers since the 1970s, with implications for how much cities across the country share in concomitant local benefits. Is invention becoming a winner-takes-all race? We explore the rising spatial concentration of patents and identify an underlying stability in their distribution. Software patents have exploded to account for about half of patents today, and these patents are highly concentrated in tech centers. Tech centers also account for a growing share of non-software patents, but the reallocation, by contrast, is entirely from the five largest population centers in 1980. Non-software patenting is stable for most cities, with anchor tenants like universities playing important roles, suggesting the growing concentration of invention may be nearing its end. Immigrant inventors and new businesses aided in the spatial transformation.

Keywords

Invention; Innovation; Artificial Intelligence; Clusters; Agglomeration; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Software; Industry Clusters; United States

Citation

Chattergoon, Brad, and William R. Kerr. "Winner Takes All? Tech Clusters, Population Centers, and the Spatial Transformation of U.S. Invention." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-027, October 2021. (NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29456, November 2021.)