The Social Origins of Inventors (2017)

<quote> Our main findings can be summarized as follows. First, parental income matters for the probability of becoming an inventor, and it does so even after controlling for other background Our main findings can be summarized as follows. First, parental income matters for the probability of becoming an inventor, and it does so even after controlling for other background variables and for IQ. Second, the estimated impact of parental income is greatly diminished once parental socioeconomic status and education, and the indi- vidual’s IQ are controlled for, dropping by 2/3rds. Third, IQ has both a direct effect on the probability of inventing which is almost five times as large as that of having a high-income father, and an indirect effect through education. Finally, the impact of IQ is larger and more convex for inventors than for medical doctors or lawyers variables and for IQ. Second, the estimated impact of parental income is greatly diminished once parental socioeconomic status and education, and the indi- vidual’s IQ are controlled for, dropping by 2/3rds. Third, IQ has both a direct effect on the probability of inventing which is almost five times as large as that of having a high-income father, and an indirect effect through education. Finally, the impact of IQ is larger and more convex for inventors than for medical doctors or lawyers </quote>

Unfortunately, having a patent today is not synonymous with being an inventor. Like peer-reviewed papers, it has become something to display in your resume and hence gamified. Research has been taken over by careerists rather than idealists.

I admit I just skimmed the full report, so I may be missing something, but I think just looking at patents may not be a great proxy for &quot;inventors&quot;. Not sure if it&#x27;s the same in Finland, but at least in the US, patents would likely be a better proxy for &quot;what kind of company you work for and what kind of job you have&quot;. I am the author on several patents, and to be honest I think a lot of them are semi-BS, but my company had a program to acquire patents.<p>Thus, I wouldn&#x27;t be surprised at all that my job (software engineer at a big tech company) is correlated with familial income.