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The Social Origins of Inventors

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  • Akcigit, Ufuk
  • Aghion, Philippe
  • Toivanen, Otto
  • Hyytinen, Ari

Abstract

In this paper we merge three datasets - individual income data, patenting data, and IQ data - to analyze the determinants of an individual's probability of inventing. We find that: (i) parental income matters even after controlling for other background variables and for IQ, yet the estimated impact of parental income is greatly diminished once parental education and the individual's IQ are controlled for; (ii) IQ has both a direct effect on the probability of inventing an indirect impact through education. The effect of IQ is larger for inventors than for medical doctors or lawyers. The impact of IQ is robust to controlling for unobserved family characteristics by focusing on potential inventors with brothers close in age. We also provide evidence on the importance of social family interactions, by looking at biological versus non-biological parents. Finally, we find a positive and significant interaction effect between IQ and father income, which suggests a misallocation of talents to innovation.

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  • Akcigit, Ufuk & Aghion, Philippe & Toivanen, Otto & Hyytinen, Ari, 2017. "The Social Origins of Inventors," CEPR Discussion Papers 12496, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12496
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    Cited by:

    1. Ruveyda Nur Gozen, 2024. "Property rights and innovation dynamism: The role of women inventors," CEP Discussion Papers dp2005, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Albert N. Link & Martijn van Hasselt, 2022. "The use of intellectual property protection mechanisms by publicly supported firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1-2), pages 111-121, February.
    3. Bracht, Felix & Verhoeven, Dennis, 2025. "Air pollution and innovation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Francesco D’Acunto & Daniel Hoang & Maritta Paloviita & Michael Weber, 2023. "IQ, Expectations, and Choice," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(5), pages 2292-2325.
    5. Fons-Rosen, Christian & Gaule, Patrick & Hrendash, Taras, 2023. "Why Has Science Become an Old Man's Game?," IZA Discussion Papers 16365, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Alex Bell & Raj Chetty & Xavier Jaravel & Neviana Petkova & John Van Reenen, 2019. "Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 647-713.
    7. Bell, Alex & Chetty, Raj & Jaravel, Xavier & Petkova, Neviana & Van Reenen, John, 2019. "Do tax cuts produce more Einsteins? The impacts of financial incentives vs. exposure to innovation on the supply of inventors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121796, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Ruchir Agarwal & Patrick Gaule, 2020. "Invisible Geniuses: Could the Knowledge Frontier Advance Faster?," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 409-424, December.
    9. repec:iab:iabfda:201803(en is not listed on IDEAS
    10. D'Acunto, Francesco & Hoang, Daniel & Paloviita, Maritta & Weber, Michael, 2019. "Human frictions in the transmission of economic policy," Working Paper Series in Economics 128, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    11. Berger, Thor & Prawitz, Erik, 2024. "Inventors among the “Impoverished Sophisticate”," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(4), pages 1175-1207, December.
    12. Gozen, Ruveyda Nur, 2024. "Property rights and innovation dynamism: the role of women inventors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126790, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Mattias Almgren & John Kramer & Jósef Sigurdsson, 2025. "It Runs in the Family: Occupational Choice and the Allocation of Talent," CESifo Working Paper Series 11808, CESifo.
    14. Dongmin Kong & Jialong Wang & Yanan Wang & Jian Zhang, 2022. "Language and innovation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1-2), pages 297-326, January.
    15. Dorner, Matthias & Harhoff, Dietmar & Gaessler, Fabian & Hoisl, Karin & Poege, Felix, 2019. "Linked Inventor Biography Data 1980-2014 : (INV-BIO ADIAB 8014)," FDZ Datenreport. Documentation on Labour Market Data 201803_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    16. Ruchir Agarwal & Patrick Gaule & Yuyan Jiang, 2025. "Finding Young Einsteins: Olympiads and STEM Talent Discovery," GTF Working Papers 2501, Global Talent Fund.
    17. Hvide, Hans K. & Oyer, Paul, 2017. "Dinner Table Human Capital and Entrepreneurship," Research Papers repec:ecl:stabus:3658, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    18. D'Acunto, Francesco & Hoang, Daniel & Paloviita, Maritta & Weber, Michael, 2019. "IQ, expectations, and choice," Working Paper Series in Economics 127, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    19. Zhu, J., 2018. "The agricultural root of innovation in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277219, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Ufuk Akcigit & Nathan Goldschlag, 2025. "Measuring the characteristics and employment dynamics of U.S. inventors," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 237-269, June.
    21. Elodie Carpentier & Jennifer Brant & Utsav Bahl & Aikaterini Kanellia, 2024. "Closing Innovation and Intellectual Property Diversity Gaps: a Global Literature Review," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 86, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    22. Youwei Wang & Yuxin Chen & Yi Qian, 2018. "The Causal Link between Relative Age Effect and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from 17 Million Users across 49 Years on Taobao," NBER Working Papers 25318, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Ufuk Akcigit & John Grigsby & Tom Nicholas & Stefanie Stantcheva, 2018. "Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century," NBER Working Papers 24982, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Kristoffer Berg & Mr. Shafik Hebous, 2021. "Does a Wealth Tax Improve Equality of Opportunity? Evidence from Norway," IMF Working Papers 2021/085, International Monetary Fund.
    25. Kilström, Matilda & Roth, Paula, 2024. "Risk-sharing and entrepreneurship," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 341-360.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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