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Specialisation and the career outcomes of inventors

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  • Bisset, Jordan

Abstract

Recent years have seen a reorganisation of innovation production to favour groups of collaborators, and increasingly specialised individual inventors. In this paper I construct a panel of highly prolific inventors, whom I observe frequently throughout their career. I develop a simple setting whereby inventors face a trade-off between acquiring knowledge depth and knowledge breadth. Empirically, I provide suggestive evidence that after conditioning upon the selection of inventors into specialised careers in certain technological fields, specialisation is associated with a lower probability of contributing to a top-cited invention over the remainder of their career. This suggestive evidence is consistent with a mechanism where specialised inventors are vulnerable to knowledge obsolescence in the late stages of their career. The negative relationship between specialisation and highly cited inventions is concerning given the disproportionate value of such inventions to society.

Suggested Citation

  • Bisset, Jordan, 2026. "Specialisation and the career outcomes of inventors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:55:y:2026:i:5:s0048733326000685
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2026.105477
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    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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