
U.S. tech inventors are highly clustered because of idea spillover - jseliger
https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/10/technology-inventions-where-work-patents-agglomeration-data/599089/
======
thesausageking
I'm very suspicious of these conclusions based on the dataset. Equating number
of patents with "productivity" is questionable and leads to a lot of
confounders. For example, most patents are filed by large companies like IBM,
which filed 2,000 patents on cloud computing in 2018 alone.

Large companies like IBM value patents more than startups and have dedicated
teams that help employees make tons of filings. I would bet this is part of
why NY-NJ-PA, where IBM is headquartered, does better than you'd expect. And,
Boston, which has no very large patent filers, does worse than you'd expect.

The 12% gain in "productivity" from moving maybe more to do with inventors
joining companies that encourage them to file more patents than any real
increase in their output.

~~~
lozaning
I dont recall if it was an official policy or more of a guideline, but when I
interned at IBM in college if you had less than ~15 patents to your name you'd
never be promoted to manager.

------
gumby
I am shocked by how low Boston ranks and how well Austin does (note: I have
worked on both but live and prefer it in the Bay Area). I know patents are
being used as a proxy so are an imperfect standard but Austin isn't a huge
place and Boston really is a powerhouse.

I'm also surprised, though less so, by NY's ranking -- but it's a huge diverse
economy, plus has a lot of lawyers :-).

~~~
bsder
Austin is the 11th largest city in the US, now (quite a bit larger than
Boston, for example). That's kinda big.

~~~
burlesona
That's just not true.

Austin Metro is 2.17M people, Boston Metro is 4.88M. Boston is also part of
the broader "Bos-Wash" chain of 50 Million people, while Texas has about 29
Million people.

Sources:

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Austin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Austin)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston)

3\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis)

4\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas)

Disclaimer: I'm from Austin. My friends and family really think it's a big
deal... but, it's only a medium deal :)

~~~
burlesona
Related: if you want to see how different urban areas stack up, this is the
best list to use:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_ar...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_areas)

By that list Boston is #10 and Austin is #37 in the US, which matches how
different the two cities "feel" in my experience as well.

~~~
chrisco255
Those numbers are from 2010. Austin has grown a tremendous amount since 2010.

------
thrower123
Going by patents is kind of a weird metric, when so many technology patents
are such complete garbage. And what is not garbage is almost entirely
corporate-driven.

It's not like people are inventing things in their back sheds and filing
patents like they were 100 years ago.

~~~
TallGuyShort
To be fair, the idea of patenting a lot of what we call "tech" these days is
probably clustered for the same idea: most people wouldn't think of patenting
software unless they're at or around companies that glorify patent recipients
and incentivizing more. Still "idea spillover". But for real, that's probably
as close as they can get to studying this with easily obtainable, easily
quantifiable data.

~~~
mncharity
> that's probably as close as they can get to studying this with easily
> obtainable, easily quantifiable data

The abstract (I didn't try scihub, but the paper isn't available from his
berkeley page either) worryingly blurs "inventors", patent creation, and "[US]
macroeconomic benefits".

Approaches to patents vary _greatly_ with industry and business plan. Both of
which vary with region. And their correspondence to national benefit is even
more diverse.

Number of researchers might serve as a useful cross-check. BLS Occupational
Employment Statistics has categories like "Medical Scientists".

But what portion of software innovation is done by "Computer and Information
Research Scientists"? What portion is patented? One might easily imagine
innovators shifting from dispersed general industry, to concentrated regions
and companies emphasizing patents, with an associated increase in patent
productivity, but net innovation and economic loss.

Number of IP lawyers per million population needs a lot of correction to serve
as a proxy for the economic benefits of innovation.

At a time when we're in a big trade war, in no small part from trying to
impose our industrial policy, I wonder if software engineering as a profession
is fulfilling an obligation to clearly communicate its experience of just how
sensitive impacts are to all the knobs and dials of patent law and policy, and
how easily it goes severely net negative. When I encounter economists assuming
a general connection between patents and societal innovation across very
dissimilar industries, I wonder which of us is failing the other.

------
Apocryphon
Will the existing Bay Area juggernaut ever claw north to Sacramento or south
to Monterey, then San Luis Obispo, I wonder.

~~~
dfcagency
that could happen with the right investments in public transport
infrastructure...

so... no.

------
paggle
I'd like to see this analysis for just independent inventors. From my
experience, what really drives patent production is being employed by
companies that prioritize patent production... and the places where these
industries are concentrated will tend to dominate patent production by volume.

------
selimthegrim
I can't believe the census bureau thinks Bogalusa is part of the New Orleans
metro area. The last anyone here heard about them was either the state taking
over their finances or water system or that scandal where some reasonably
ranking cop had KKK robes in his barn.

------
mattmaroon
It sure feels like they are implying causation where we just really see
correlation.

------
Apocryphon
Wondering why the Research Triangle isn't on this list.

