Replication Files for "Reassessing the Contributions of Black Inventors to the Golden Age of Innovation"

Replication files for "Reassessing the Contributions of Black Inventors to the Golden Age of Innovation" by Michael J. Andrews and Jonathan T. Rothwell, Essays in Economic and Business History 2023. <br><br>During the Second Industrial Revolution
and subsequently, it is widely believed that Black Americans contributed
disproportionately little to the economic development of the United States,
especially in comparison to European Americans and immigrants from Europe. Yet,
Black Americans tended to live in entirely different institutional environments
than other Americans, particularly in the South under Jim Crow laws. Using a
new database that matches inventors to census records, we find that patenting
rates for Black Americans living in the North were very similar to patenting
rates for White Americans from 1870 to 1940; in some decades and states,
Northern Black patenting rates exceeded the patenting rate for White Americans.
In the South, patenting rates were low for both Black and White Americans,
while patenting rates for Northern Black residents were far higher than those
for Southern White residents. We additionally find that Black Americans from
all regions were responsible for more patents than immigrants from all but two
countries (Germany and England). In total, we estimate that African Americans invented
more than 50,000 patents over the period. Thus, when freed of extreme political
oppression, Black Americans demonstrated a level of inventiveness that matched the
most inventive groups in US history.<br>

《经济与商业史论集》2023年刊中Michael J. Andrews与Jonathan T. Rothwell所著《重新评估黑人发明家对创新黄金时代的贡献》一文的复现文件。<br><br>在第二次工业革命期间及其后，人们普遍认为美国黑人对美国经济发展的贡献不成比例地少，尤其是与欧裔美国人和欧洲移民相比。然而，美国黑人往往生活在与其他美国人完全不同的制度环境中，特别是在实施吉姆·克劳法（Jim Crow laws）的南方。通过使用一个将发明家与人口普查记录相匹配的新数据库，我们发现1870年至1940年间，居住在北方的美国黑人的专利申请率与美国白人非常相似；在某些十年和州中，北方黑人的专利申请率甚至超过了白人。在南方，黑人和白人的专利申请率均较低，而北方黑人居民的专利申请率远高于南方白人居民。我们还发现，来自所有地区的美国黑人所贡献的专利数量超过了除德国和英国之外所有国家移民的专利数量总和。总的来说，我们估计在此期间非裔美国人发明了超过50000项专利。因此，当摆脱极端政治压迫时，美国黑人展现出的创造力水平可与美国历史上最具创造力的群体相媲美。