We document that inventors patent and cite technologies aligned with the views of their political party. We link inventors to US voter registration data and map politically polarized issues to technologies. Compared to Republicans, Democrats are one-third more likely to patent technologies addressing climate change mitigation or women's reproductive health and one-third less likely to patent weapons. This holds across economic returns and organization characteristics. Republicans and Democrats are also 20% differently likely to cite these technologies. These findings highlight the importance of inventors' identity - specifically, their party affiliation - in shaping the content and diffusion of their innovation.

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13 August 2025     Paper Number CEPDP2116

Download PDF - Polarized Technologies

This CEP discussion paper is published under the centre's Growth programme.