Lisa Cook (Sanford Economics of Structural Inequality Seminar) - Michigan State University
Economics, Innovation, and Structural Inequality
Date: 04/13/2021 (Tue)
Time: 3:15pm- 4:45pm
Location: This seminar will be held remotely via Zoom. (Please sign in to see the link.)
Organizer: Matthew S Johnson
Meeting Schedule: (Not currently open for scheduling. Please contact the seminar organizer listed above.)
All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.
3:15pm - Seminar Presentation (3:15pm to 4:45pm)
Additional Comments: 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 a natural 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.