Presentation on the effects of regional diversity on innovation

At the conference in Montreal, Canada, Anna Kremer presented a current research paper titled ‘Many names, many gains? How local diversity in Germany affects innovativeness’.

The study links the distribution of German surnames from a 1996 telephone directory with the cultural diversity of regions and the number of patents. Her results show that there are positive knowledge externalities that strengthen local innovativeness when people from different regions of Germany live close to one another. Using historical borders within Germany, the analysis provides causal evidence that cultural diversity positively affects the number of patents.

This novel finding expands the academic literature by showing that cultural differences among people of the same nationality can have a positive effect on knowledge creation — a relationship previously known only in the context of international differences.

Contact: Anna Kremer