Local Buzz Versus Global Pipelines and the Inventive Productivity of US Cities

Abstract

Drawing on recent research emphasizing the role played by social and collaboration networks in driving the spatial diffusion of scientific and technological knowledge, this chapter presents new evidence on the structural properties of knowledge networks in 331 US cities based on European Patent Office data for the period 1990–2004. Interestingly, and differently from previous studies, the chapter not only looks at cities’ internal network topological structure, but also at the embeddedness of metropolitan inventors within the broader US-wide collaboration network. To this end, it proposes new indicators aimed to capture US cities’ propensity to engage not only in local, but also in global knowledge exchanges. In particular, the chapter proposes a classification of US cities according to these dimensions and examines the evolution of metropolitan co-invention networks structural properties in a diachronic perspective. These trends are finally associated to cities’ inventive and economic performance.