IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/recgxx/v95y2019i4p341-361.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Scaling of Atypical Knowledge Combinations in American Metropolitan Areas from 1836 to 2010

Author

Listed:
  • Lars Mewes

Abstract

Cities are epicenters for invention. Scaling analyses have verified the productivity of cities and demonstrate a superlinear relationship between cities’ population size and invention performance. However, little is known about what kinds of inventions correlate with city size. Is the productivity of cities only limited to invention quantity? I shift the focus on the quality of idea creation by investigating how cities influence the art of knowledge combinations. Atypical combinations introduce novel and unexpected linkages between knowledge domains. They express creativity in inventions and are particularly important for technological breakthroughs. My study of 174 years of invention history in metropolitan areas in the US reveals a superlinear scaling of atypical combinations with population size. The observed scaling grows over time indicating a geographic shift toward cities since the early twentieth century. The productivity of large cities is thus not only restricted to quantity but also includes quality in invention processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Lars Mewes, 2019. "Scaling of Atypical Knowledge Combinations in American Metropolitan Areas from 1836 to 2010," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 95(4), pages 341-361, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:95:y:2019:i:4:p:341-361
    DOI: 10.1080/00130095.2019.1567261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00130095.2019.1567261
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00130095.2019.1567261?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Wyrwich, 2022. "Historical episodes and their legacies across space: A famous case revisited," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 1048-1091, September.
    2. Tom Kemeny & Sergio Petralia & Michael Storper, 2022. "Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2211, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2022.
    3. Esposito, Christopher R., 2023. "The geography of breakthrough invention in the United States over the 20th century," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(7).
    4. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    5. Abbasiharofteh, Milad & Kogler, Dieter F. & Lengyel, Balázs, 2023. "Atypical combinations of technologies in regional co-inventor networks," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 52(10), pages 1-1.
    6. Tom Broekel & Louis Knuepling & Lars Mewes, 2023. "Boosting, sorting and complexity—urban scaling of innovation around the world," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(5), pages 979-1016.
    7. Gergő Tóth & Zoltán Elekes & Adam Whittle & Changjun Lee & Dieter F. Kogler, 2022. "Technology Network Structure Conditions the Economic Resilience of Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 98(4), pages 355-378, August.
    8. Sándor Juhász & Tom Broekel & Ron Boschma, 2021. "Explaining the dynamics of relatedness: The role of co‐location and complexity," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(1), pages 3-21, February.
    9. Annekatrin Niebuhr & Jan Cornelius Peters & Alex Schmidke, 2020. "Spatial sorting of innovative firms and heterogeneous effects of agglomeration on innovation in Germany," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 1343-1375, October.
    10. Gianluca Orsatti & Francesco Quatraro & Alessandra Scandura, 2020. "Regional differences in the generation of green technologies: the role of local recombinant capabilities and academic inventors," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 617, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    11. Ron Boschma & Ernest Miguélez & Rosina Moreno & Diego B. Ocampo-Corrales, 2021. "Technological breakthroughs in European regions: the role of related and unrelated combinations," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2021-10, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    12. Kolja Hesse & Dirk Fornahl, 2020. "Essential ingredients for radical innovations? The role of (un‐)related variety and external linkages in Germany," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(5), pages 1165-1183, October.
    13. Sandro Montresor & Gianluca Orsatti & Francesco Quatraro, 2023. "Technological novelty and key enabling technologies: evidence from European regions," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 851-872, August.
    14. Seyed Peyman Asadi & Ahmad Jafari Samimi, 2019. "Lagging-behind Areas as a Challenge to the Regional Development Strategy: What Insights can New and Evolutionary Economic Geography Offer?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1923, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2019.
    15. Christopher Esposito, 2021. "The Geography of Breakthrough Innovation in the United States over the 20th Century," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2126, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    16. Abbasiharofteh, Milad & Kinne, Jan & Krüger, Miriam, 2021. "The strength of weak and strong ties in bridging geographic and cognitive distances," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-049, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Nils Grashof & Alexander Kopka, 2023. "Artificial intelligence and radical innovation: an opportunity for all companies?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 771-797, August.
    18. Marco Di Cataldo & Licia Ferranna & Margherita Gerolimetto & Stefano Magrini, 2023. "Splitting Up or Dancing Together? Local Institutional Structure and the Performance of Urban Areas," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 99(1), pages 81-110, January.
    19. Higham, Kyle & Contisciani, Martina & De Bacco, Caterina, 2022. "Multilayer patent citation networks: A comprehensive analytical framework for studying explicit technological relationships," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    20. Qin, Xionghe & Wang, Xueli & Kwan, Mei-Po, 2023. "The contrasting effects of interregional networks and local agglomeration on R&D productivity in Chinese provinces: Insights from an empirical spatial Durbin model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    21. Melissa Haller & David L. Rigby, 2020. "The geographic evolution of optics technologies in the United States, 1976–2010," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(6), pages 1539-1559, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:95:y:2019:i:4:p:341-361. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/recg .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.