Same difference? Minority ethnic inventors, diversity and innovation in the UK
利用英国专利微观数据和新的人名分类系统，研究少数族裔发明家的空间分布及其对创新的影响，发现发明家社区的多样性有助于提高个人专利产出，东亚裔明星发明家可能有示范效应。
Minority ethnic inventors play important roles in US innovation, especially in high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley. Do ‘ethnicity–innovation’ channels exist elsewhere? Ethnicity could influence innovation via production complementarities from diverse inventor communities, co-ethnic network externalities or individual ‘stars’. I explore these issues using new UK patents microdata and a novel name-classification system. UK minority ethnic inventors are spatially concentrated, as in the USA, but have different characteristics reflecting UK-specific geography and history. I find that the diversity of inventor communities helps raise individual patenting, with suggestive influence of East Asian-origin stars. Majority inventors may benefit from multiplier effects.