Vox:
The great invention gap between rich and poor kids - and why it matters
16 March 2015
New research from a group of economists at Harvard, the Treasury Department, and the London School of Economics provides a particularly vivid illustration of how disadvantage can harm the economy at large. The researchers - Harvard's Alex Bell, Raj Chetty, and Xavier Jaravel, Treasury's Neviana Petkova, and LSE's John Van Reenan - match up data on patents in the United States with tax returns of the people getting the patents - and the returns of their parents. That lets them see not just how much inventors earn as adults, but how much their families made when they were children. That means they can compare how often children born into poor or middle-class families get patents relative to children of privilege.
This article was published online by Vox on March 16, 2015
Link to article here
Related links
John Van Reenen webpage
Productivity and Innovation Programme webpage