Social push and the direction of innovation

Einiö, Elias, Feng, Josh and Jaravel, Xavier ORCID: 0000-0001-9228-2137 (2025) Social push and the direction of innovation. American Economic Review. ISSN 0002-8282 (In Press)

Text (einio_feng_jaravel) - Accepted Version Pending embargo until 1 January 2100. Download (2MB)

Abstract

What are the implications of unequal access to innovation careers for the direction of innovation and inequality? Leveraging novel linked datasets in the United States and Finland, we document that innovators create products more likely to be purchased by consumers like them in terms of gender, socioeconomic status, and age. Homophily exists both within narrow product categories and across industries, and has been stable in recent decades. Incorporating this “social push” channel into a growth model, we estimate that unequal access to innovation careers has a large effect on cost-of-living inequality and long-run growth

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Economics
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
JEL classification:	O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O41 - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
Date Deposited:	14 Nov 2025 09:54
Last Modified:	14 Nov 2025 10:30
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130164

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