Compulsory Innovation: How Education Forms Inventors

We investigate the effect of education on innovation using the rollout of compulsory schooling laws in the United States. We find that primary and secondary education increase both the chance an individual will become an inventor and that they will patent a breakthrough innovation. The positive effect of formal schooling on the probability of invention is strongest in geographies with less pre-existing innovative activity, suggesting that exposure to innovation and education act as substitutes in the production of inventors. Our findings provide empirical evidence for the long-hypothesized link between education and the human capital necessary for innovation and growth.