Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
社会推动与创新方向
Social Push and the Direction of Innovation
摘要
What are the implications of unequal access to innovation careers for the direction of innovation and inequality? Leveraging novel linked datasets in the United States and Finland, we document that innovators create products more likely to be purchased by consumers like them in terms of gender, socioeconomic status, and age. Homophily exists both within narrow product categories and across industries, and has been stable in recent decades. Incorporating this “social push” channel into a growth model, we estimate that unequal access to innovation careers has a large effect on cost-of-living inequality and long-run growth.
中文摘要
创新职业机会的不平等对创新方向与不平等有何影响？利用美国和芬兰的新型关联数据集，我们证实创新者更倾向于开发与其自身在性别、社会经济地位及年龄方面相似的消费者更可能购买的产品。这种同质性既存在于细分产品类别内部，也跨越不同行业，且近几十年来保持稳定。通过将这一"社会推动"渠道纳入增长模型，我们估算出创新职业机会的不平等对生活成本不平等及长期增长具有显著影响。