This paper provides new causal evidence of the impact of train travel time on patent collaboration between inventors. We construct a novel dataset of train travel times in France between 1980 and 2010 and exploit the roll out of High Speed Railways (HSR) as a quasi-natural experiment. The median decrease in travel time of 12% led to a 2.6% increase in patent collaborations across commuting zones. The effect on the increase in collaborations was stronger for most productive commuting zones and the most productive inventors within them, increasing the collaboration gap across and within regions.
This paper has received the Best Paper Award delivered by the 20th Augustin Cournot Doctoral Days and the Best Presentation Award delivered at the 15th ESSEC PhD Poster Session.
- Non-technical summary (see here)
- Résumé non technique (voir ici)
- Wondering how high‑speed rail has reshaped perceived distances in France since 1980? See my post on dynamic anamorphic maps: France in Motion
High-speed railway rollouts in France (1981–2017)
