PhD Seminar Series: From Immigrant to Inventor: Evidence from the U.S. during the Age of Mass Migration

From Immigrant to Inventor: Evidence from the U.S. during the Age of Mass Migration

Speaker: Zenne Hellinga (University of Utrecht)

Abstract: We study who became an inventor in the United States around 1900, focusing on differences between natives, first-generation immigrants, and their U.S.-born children. Furthermore, we examine how ethnicity and childhood exposure to neighboring inventors shaped the likelihood of entering a career in technological innovation. Using a newly assembled patent–census matched dataset covering the full-count U.S. population from 1850 to 1940, we identify inventors in historical censuses and link individuals over time. Our empirical approach combines fine-grained neighborhood analysis, county-level shift–share instrumental variables, and distance-based exposure measures using geocoded residential addresses. We find substantial cross-ethnic differences in inventive activity among first-generation immigrants, with partial convergence in the second generation. Childhood exposure to nearby inventors predicts later inventive outcomes, especially when the inventor shares the child’s ethnicity. IV estimates suggest that neighborhood selection accounts for only part of this relationship. Using geocoded addresses, we show that the exposure effect decays with distance and is driven mainly by inventors living within 50 meters of the child. Together, these results highlight the important role of local social environments, and especially ethnic networks, in shaping entry into technological innovation. They suggest that potential inventive talents of the early twentieth century were “lost” not because of limited abilities, but because they lacked close, relatable exposure to inventive role models during childhood.