This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. July 2026
  5. The Effect of High-Tech Clusters on the Productivity of Top Inventors: Comment

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

The Effect of High-Tech Clusters on the Productivity of Top Inventors: Comment

  • Michael Wiebe
American Economic Review
vol. 116, no. 7, July 2026
(pp. 2754–63)
See also: Original paper by Moretti (2021)

 

Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

Moretti (2021) reports a positive elasticity between technology cluster size and patenting, and uses an event study and instrumental variables regressions to justify a causal interpretation. The event study does not use the variation generated by inventors moving across cities, and the instrument is constructed incorrectly due to a coding error. I run a corrected event study and fix the coding error, and find null effects. The reported elasticity may not be causal.

Citation

Wiebe, Michael. 2026. "The Effect of High-Tech Clusters on the Productivity of Top Inventors: Comment." American Economic Review 116 (7): 2754–63. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20231415

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • L60 Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General
  • O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
  • O34 Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
  • R32 Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis