Essays on the economic geography of innovation

Abstract

This thesis consists of three solo-authored chapters. Essay I asks: Does the advent of transformative new technology opportunities impact the ways firms structure R&D and production across space? And how does this process give rise to new clusters in new places? Essay II asks: Did the professionalization of U.S. electronics engineers shape the rate and mode of U.S. innovation during the invention golden age? I study how the growth of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) - the largest cross-sectoral engineering association in the early U.S. electronics industry - facilitated corporate fundamental research geographically during the U.S. invention golden age of the 1940s–1960s. Essay III asks: Did Japanese trade in the 1980s impact the geography of U.S. firm innovation? The rise of Japanese trade in the 1980s marked a critical moment when the most advanced U.S. industries faced existential risk from import competition. Using a novel firm-level dynamic measure of exposure to Japanese trade, I provide robust empirical evidence of a positive causal link between exposure to high-tech Japanese import penetration and U.S. domestic innovation. By answering these questions, this essay seek to advance our current understanding on how new clusters originate during the “periodical bursts” of radical innovations.