Innovation spillovers across US tech clusters

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Giroud, Xavier; Liu, Ernest; Mueller, Holger
• 署名单位: Columbia University; Princeton University; New York University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2026.104264
• 发表日期: 2026-05
• 页码: 104264
• 关键词: innovation; networks; Tech clusters; spillovers; Wedges; research-and-development; FIRMS; economies

摘要

The vast majority of U.S. inventors work for firms that also have inventors and plants in other tech clusters. Using merged USPTO-U.S. Census Bureau plant-level data, we show that larger tech clusters not only make local inventors more productive but also raise the productivity of inventors and plants in distant clusters, which are connected to the focal cluster through their parent firms' networks of innovating plants. To rationalize these findings, we develop a tractable model of spatial innovation that features both within-and cross-cluster innovation spillovers. Within our model, we derive a sufficient statistic for the wedge between the social and private returns to innovation in a given location. Taking the model to the data, we find a 41% correlation between the location wedges and locations' connectedness to other tech clusters.