David William Kosior

Innovation is a factor of economic change with inherently geographical causes and effects. Locations closer to innovation generally benefit more from their proximity than locations that are farther away. Patent data are a relatively good indicator of innovative change. Canada underwent significant regional economic change from 1991 to 2006. The purpose of this study is to build a thorough understanding of the geography of invention in Canada for the years 1991, 200I, and 2006. The analysis looks at invention with respect to products vs. processes, the number of inventors, the owner of the patent, and the industry specialization of the owner. An attempt was made to explain the rate of invention output for metropolitan areas based on proposed factors of innovation. A stepwise regression procedure was used for this task.

The relative rate of inventive output and importance of the Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver areas have declined since 1991. The importance of Kitchener-Waterloo, Calgary, Ottawa, and Saskatoon has increased. Alberta and Saskatchewan became more important by 2006, while Ontario became slightly less important and British Columbia became far less important. The regression analysis suggests that general human capital indicators might have been most important in 199I and 200I. By 2006, resource industry specialization was significant in explaining rates of inventive output. Overall, industry specialization seems to be of great importance in driving inventive output in Canada. The fortunes of individual companies or organizations also seem to have a significant impact on the geography of invention.