Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 11

Figure 4: Trends in Specialization: Solo Inventors vs. Team Inventors

Notes: Fig. 4A presents the evolution of specialization for solo inventors, plotting the tendency for a solo inventor to
switch technological areas across that inventor’s consecutive patents. The probability of such field jump declines
sharply with time, so that individual inventors appear more specialized, i.e. narrower in their technological span.
Fig. 4B shows, by contrast, that when individuals work in teams, they jump between fields as regularly as before.
Through teamwork, individuals appear to maintain breadth of technological span.

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