State Capacity and American Technology: Evidence from the Nineteenth Century

Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth compellingly shows how technical innovation, stimulated by the country's institutions, has radically improved the living standards of the citizens of the US. We conduct an empirical investigation of the impact of the capacity of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Acemoglu, K. Daron (Contributor), Moscona, Jacob (Contributor), Robinson, James (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Economic Association, 2018-02-15T19:57:38Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Acemoglu, K. Daron  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Moscona, Jacob  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Robinson, James  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Moscona, Jacob  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Robinson, James  |e author 
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520 |a Robert Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth compellingly shows how technical innovation, stimulated by the country's institutions, has radically improved the living standards of the citizens of the US. We conduct an empirical investigation of the impact of the capacity of the US state, as proxied by the presence of post offices, on innovation. We show that there is a strong association between the number of post offices in a county and patenting activity. Our evidence suggests that part of story of US innovation is the capacity and reach of the US state. 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t American Economic Review