posted on 2020-08-18, 22:15authored bySebastian Wai
This
paper uses newly collected patent and biographical data to identify and
profile semiconductor inventors and track their backgrounds. This data are
used to study the famous cluster of semiconductor firms in Silicon Valley and
make comparisons to firms in other regions. Logistic regressions are used to
estimate probabilities that firms hire inventors from a given background,
dependent on characteristics of the firm. These logit models test whether
Silicon Valley firms behave differently than other firms outside the region
in terms of inventor hiring and assess claims made about Silicon Valley by
other authors.