Job-market paper: German engineering societies lifted regional patents 4.8%
Afinetheorem · x · 2026-10-29
Tyler Cowen highlights BU PhD Stefan Dietrich's job-market paper on Germany's Engineering Society (1880–1912): a difference-in-differences design shows opening a local chapter raised annual high-value patents in the region by 4.8%, with effects concentrated where members worked and local patents converging toward earlier district patents — evidence of engineer-to-engineer knowledge exchange that persists a century later. Commentators note diffusion remains underrated in the economics of innovation.
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