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Lockdowns and Innovation: Evidence from the 1918 Flu Pandemic / Enrico Berkes, Olivier Deschenes, Ruben Gaetani, Jeffrey Lin, Christopher Severen.

NBER Working papers Available online

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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Berkes, Enrico.
Contributor:
National Bureau of Economic Research.
Deschenes, Olivier.
Gaetani, Ruben.
Lin, Jeffrey.
Severen, Christopher.
Series:
Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28152.
NBER working paper series no. w28152
Language:
English
Physical Description:
1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
Place of Publication:
Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.
Summary:
Does social distancing harm innovation? We estimate the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)--policies that restrict interactions in an attempt to slow the spread of disease--on local invention. We construct a panel of issued patents and NPIs adopted by 50 large US cities during the 1918 flu pandemic. Difference-in-differences estimates show that cities adopting longer NPIs did not experience a decline in patenting during the pandemic relative to short-NPI cities, and recorded higher patenting afterward. Rather than reduce local invention by restricting localized knowledge spillovers, NPIs adopted during the pandemic may have better preserved other inventive factors.
Notes:
Print version record
November 2020.

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