About this event

We construct a novel establishment-level dataset combining the nineteenth-century U.S. Census of Manufactures (1850?1880) with patent records from CUSP to examine how innovation shaped firm performance in early industrial America. Patenting establishments were substantially larger than comparable non-patenters across all dimensions?employment, capital, output, and output per worker?with premia further amplified among firms that produced breakthrough inventions. Estimating establishment-level production functions using a Levinsohn-Petrin approach, we find that patenting is associated with higher revenue total factor productivity (TFPR) while leaving markups unchanged on average. Breakthrough innovations, however, are associated with gains on both margins, with a size decomposition revealing the strongest amplification among the largest establishments ? consistent with superstar dynamics ? yet small breakthrough innovators also capture meaningful gains, suggesting the returns to invention were not exclusive to large firms.

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This event will take place in SAL 2.04, 2nd Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH.