Inventors among the “Impoverished Sophisticate”
基于一战前瑞典专利记录与人口普查数据，研究发现发明家主要来自经济、教育和社会地位顶层的精英，但创新也为少数中下层儿童提供了向上流动的途径。
This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to WWI, drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during Sweden’s industrialization can largely be attributed to a small industrial elite belonging to the upper-tail of the economic, educational, and social status distribution. Analyzing children’s opportunities to become inventors, we show that inventors were disproportionately drawn from privileged family backgrounds. However, innovation was a path to upward mobility for the middle- and working-class children that managed to overcome the barriers to entry.