IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v106y2024i4p974-982.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Year Older, A Year Wiser (and Farther from Frontier): Invention Rents and Human Capital Depreciation

Author

Listed:
  • Philippe Aghion

    (London School of Economics and Insead)

  • Ufuk Akcigit

    (University of Chicago)

  • Ari Hyytinen

    (Hanken School of Economics and Helsinki Graduate School of Economics)

  • Otto Toivanen

    (Aalto University School of Business, Helsinki Graduate School of Economics, and KU Leuven)

Abstract

We look at how the arrival of an invention affects wage returns and the probability of moving out of employment for white- and blue-collar co-workers of the inventor. First results suggest that older workers are hurt by the arrival of an invention. This negative effect disappears when we control for education and, in particular, for the time since obtaining the last formal degree, that is, distance to human capital frontier. If anything, this effect is slightly higher for non-STEM than STEM-educated co-workers. This result suggests that retraining programs could be helpful in making the process of creative destruction and economic growth more inclusive.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Ari Hyytinen & Otto Toivanen, 2024. "A Year Older, A Year Wiser (and Farther from Frontier): Invention Rents and Human Capital Depreciation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(4), pages 974-982, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:4:p:974-982
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01262
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/rest_a_01262?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Ari Hyytinen & Otto Toivanen, 2023. "2022 Klein Lecture Parental Education And Invention: The Finnish Enigma," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(2), pages 453-490, May.
    2. Jarkko Harju & Toni Juuti & Tuomas Matikka, 2023. "Stairway to Heaven? Selection into Entrepreneurship, Income Mobility and Firm Performance," Working Papers 17, Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • 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

    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:tpr:restat:v:106:y:2024:i:4:p:974-982. 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: Kelly McDougall (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    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.