THE EFFECT OF INFRASTRUCTURE ON INVENTION - INNOVATIVE CAPACITY AND THE DYNAMICS OF PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION INVESTMENT

The association between public infrastructural investment and inventio n is explored in this study, analyzing expenditure and patenting trend s and cycles over much of the 20th century. First, innovative capacity , an endogenous indicator of US innovation potential based on inventio n patent output, is conceptualized and discussed. A major shift in inv ention modes is shown to have occurred over seven decades (1920-89) as corporate, rather than individual, invention became the most importan t national source of innovative capacity. The support of public infras tructure for invention is then analyzed, considering its most importan t characteristiscs and supportive functions, and its expenditure patte rns over seven decades. The analysis of the infrastructural investment and the innovative capacity age cycle dynamics reveals a remarkable a ssociation between educational infrastructure construction and both ag gregate and corporate innovative capacity. Time-series statistical ana lyses provide further insights on the effects of infrastructural inves tment on invention, showing that corporate patenting tends to benefit more from public infrastructural construction and that educational inf rastructure expenditures provide a stronger association with both aggr egate and corporate inventive performance.