Journal of Political Economy Vol. 79 No. 3 1971
American Inventiveness, 1870-1920
Abstract
This paper extends the wealth-maximization model of invention in a new direction by taking into account the costs of information and by relating those costs to the urban-rural distribution of the population. The major empirical finding, obtained through a multiple regression analysis, is that the proportion of the population in urban areas and the number of inventions per capita were closely associated during the 1870-1920 period for a cross section of American states. This finding may well be significant for the explanation of economic growth as a self-sustaining process.
- DOI
- 10.1086/259775
- Volume
- 79
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 661-667
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex crossref