Using panel data on 251,511 patented inventors, compared to voter registration records containing partisan affiliation, we provide the first large-scale examination of partisanship among American inventors. We document that the modal inventor is Republican and that the partisan composition of inventors has changed in ways that do not reflect partisan affiliation trends in the general population. We then show that inventors’ partisan affiliation is associated with technological invention related to guns and climate change, two issues associated with partisan division. These results suggest that inventor partisanship may have implications for the direction of inventive activity.
Here is the complete piece by Daniel Fehder, Florenta Teodoridis, Joseph Raffee and Jino Lu. Via Kris Gulati.
