Inventors among the Impoverished Sophisticate

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Uppsala University; Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS); Lund University; Lund University; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Linnaeus University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050724000433
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 1175-1207
• 关键词: intergenerational occupational-mobility; UNITED-STATES; great inventors; INNOVATION; AGE; industrialization; KNOWLEDGE

摘要

This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to WWI, drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during Sweden's industrialization can largely be attributed to a small industrial elite belonging to the upper-tail of the economic, educational, and social status distribution. Analyzing children's opportunities to become inventors, we show that inventors were disproportionately drawn from privileged family backgrounds. However, innovation was a path to upward mobility for the middle- and working-class children that managed to overcome the barriers to entry.