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Learning-by-Producing and the Geographic Links Between Invention and Production: Experience from the Second Industrial Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2006

Dhanoos Sutthiphisal
Dhanoos Sutthiphisal
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, McGill University 855, Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T7, Canada; and Faculty Research Fellow, NBER. E-mail: dhanoos.sutthiphisal@mcgill.ca.
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Abstract

This article investigates the impact of “learning-by-producing” on inventive activity. From 1870 to 1910, in both emerging (electrical equipment and supplies) and maturing (shoes and textiles) industries, the geographic association between invention and production was rather weak. Regional shifts in production did not lead to corresponding increases in invention. The location of inventive activity tended to mirror that of individuals with advanced technical skills appropriate to each industry. Consequently, scholars may have overemphasized the importance of learning-by-producing in accounting for geographic differences in inventive activity, and underestimated the significance of technical skills amongst the population.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 992 - 1025
Copyright
© 2006 The Economic History Association

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