Equity and Innovation: Rethinking Technological Progress Through the lens of Inequality and Institutions
(2025) EKHS42 20251Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- This paper investigates the role of inequality in shaping both the level and direction of innovation across 50 countries from 2015 to 2018. Drawing on the framework of national innovation systems and employing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) alongside multivariate OLS regressions, we construct composite indicators for governance, inequality, and institutional capacity. Our findings suggest that inequality is not only an outcome of technological progress but also a structural determinant that influences who innovates and for what purpose. We distinguish between overall innovation, proxied by total patents, and sustainable innovation, proxied by environment-related patents. Evidence points to a significant, nonlinear relationship between... (More)
- This paper investigates the role of inequality in shaping both the level and direction of innovation across 50 countries from 2015 to 2018. Drawing on the framework of national innovation systems and employing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) alongside multivariate OLS regressions, we construct composite indicators for governance, inequality, and institutional capacity. Our findings suggest that inequality is not only an outcome of technological progress but also a structural determinant that influences who innovates and for what purpose. We distinguish between overall innovation, proxied by total patents, and sustainable innovation, proxied by environment-related patents. Evidence points to a significant, nonlinear relationship between inequality and sustainable innovation, indicating that at certain levels inequality may hinder green technological progress but at other levels it may encourage it. These results underscore the importance of balancing incentives with inclusive institutions and equitable innovation ecosystems which are key to fostering long-term, socially aligned technologies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9208379
- author
- Dyjewski, Tienhuy Tomasz LU and Pinte, Hortense
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- EKHS42 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9208379
- date added to LUP
- 2025-10-27 08:30:35
- date last changed
- 2025-10-27 08:30:35
@misc{9208379,
abstract = {{This paper investigates the role of inequality in shaping both the level and direction of innovation across 50 countries from 2015 to 2018. Drawing on the framework of national innovation systems and employing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) alongside multivariate OLS regressions, we construct composite indicators for governance, inequality, and institutional capacity. Our findings suggest that inequality is not only an outcome of technological progress but also a structural determinant that influences who innovates and for what purpose. We distinguish between overall innovation, proxied by total patents, and sustainable innovation, proxied by environment-related patents. Evidence points to a significant, nonlinear relationship between inequality and sustainable innovation, indicating that at certain levels inequality may hinder green technological progress but at other levels it may encourage it. These results underscore the importance of balancing incentives with inclusive institutions and equitable innovation ecosystems which are key to fostering long-term, socially aligned technologies.}},
author = {{Dyjewski, Tienhuy Tomasz and Pinte, Hortense}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Equity and Innovation: Rethinking Technological Progress Through the lens of Inequality and Institutions}},
year = {{2025}},
}