Is innovation (increasingly) concentrated in large cities? An international comparison

There is a widely held belief that agglomeration economies encourage significantly more successful and productive innovation activities. Based on this some scholars even suggest policies designed to stimulate in non-urban areas are ineffective waste of resources. Investigating the geographic concentration patented inventions 14 developed countries, we find most countries patenting geographically dispersed with considerable shares other than large cities. South Korea US two extreme outliers where highly concentrated Also, there no general tendency inventors cities productive, terms filing patents, when compared rural areas. We conclude while found may offer advantages for activities, extent these not significant, popular theories overemphasize importance