Local labour tasks and patenting in US commuting zones
通过构建职业的抽象任务强度指标，衡量工人分析复杂问题、协调不同知识背景人员的能力，发现美国通勤区工人从事抽象任务的程度是当地发明活动（以授权专利衡量）的关键决定因素。
Abstract In this article, we adopt a task approach to measure the local pool of capabilities which can more effectively spur innovation. By focusing on the core activities that workers undertake in their jobs, we build an abstract task intensity measure of occupations to proxy the ability in analysing and solving complex problems, as well as in coordinating and integrating people with different knowledge endowments, that should be especially relevant for the process of invention and innovation. We thus estimate the relationship between the local abstract intensity and the inventive performance, proxied by granted patents, of US Commuting Zones (CZs) during the period 2000–2015. The evidence provided, robust to a wide array of sensitivity checks, points to the extent of workers’ engagement in abstract tasks across CZs as a crucial determinant of the local inventive activity.