Back to Search
Start Over
State Capacity and American Technology: Evidence from the Nineteenth Century†.
- Source :
- American Economic Review; May2016, Vol. 106 Issue 5, p61-67, 7p, 2 Charts
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth compellingly shows how technical innovation, stimulated by the country's institutions, has radically improved the living standards of the citizens of the US. We conduct an empirical investigation of the impact of the capacity of the US state, as proxied by the presence of post offices, on innovation. We show that there is a strong association between the number of post offices in a county and patenting activity. Our evidence suggests that part of story of US innovation is the capacity and reach of the US state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- TECHNOLOGICAL innovations
ECONOMIC development
POSTAL service
U.S. states
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00028282
- Volume :
- 106
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- American Economic Review
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 115268325
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20161071