@techreport{NBERw2707,
 title = "Inventive Activity in Early Industrial America:  Evidence From Patent Records, 1790 - 1846",
 author = "Kenneth L. Sokoloff",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "2707",
 year = "1988",
 month = "September",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w2707",
 abstract = {A sample of patent records from the United States between 1790 and 1846 is employed to study the patterns in inventive activity. Patenting was pro-cyclical, and yet began to grow rapidly with the interruptions in foreign trade that preceded the War of 1812. A strong association between patenting and proximity to navigable waterways is also demonstrated. Although the importance of specific mechanisms remains unclear, both the temporal and cross-sectional evidence imply that inventive activity was positively related to the growth of markets during early industrialization.},
}