Research
Research
My research focuses on economic history, innovation economics and technological change, with a particular interest in how institutions shape inventive activity.
Much of my work uses the history of the British patent system to study questions around patent policy, disclosure, innovation quality and technological development. I combine historical data with methods from applied econometrics, causal inference, text analysis and machine learning.
Patents, Institutions & Innovation
How changes in patent systems influence inventive behaviour and technological development.
Measuring Innovation from Text
Using patent text, natural language processing and machine learning to measure novelty, similarity and disclosure.
Digital Markets & Consumer Behaviour
Using platform data to study consumer responses to changes in pricing and business models.
"Success and failure in England’s patent system: New evidence from patent applications, 1783-1834"
with Joe Lane (University of Reading)
The Economic History Review (published online, March 2026)
"Procuring Promising Provisions: the British Patent System and the Navy Proviso, 1794-1831"
with Joe Lane (University of Reading)
European Review of Economic History (Volume 30 Issue 1, February 2026)
"What explains patenting behaviour during Britain’s Industrial Revolution?"
Explorations in Economic History (Volume 82, October 2021)
doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2021.101426
"'That’s Classified!' Inventing a new patent taxonomy"
with Alan. J Hanna (Queen's University Belfast)
Industrial and Corporate Change (Volume 30 Issue 3, June 2021)
"Financing innovation: the role of patent examination"
with Christopher L. Colvin and Christopher Coyle (Queen's University Belfast)
CAGE Working Paper Series, Paper No. 767/2025 (September 2025)
"'Mr Fane's Fire Balls': A case study of entrepreneurial failure during the Industrial Revolution"
with Joe Lane (University of Reading)
Revise & Resubmit at Business History
"Who wants to be a millionaire? Failure and bankruptcy in the pursuit of innovation in the First Industrial Revolution"
with Joe Lane (University of Reading)
Funded with a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (SRG/230704)
"Clause and effect: Public procurement of innovation during the First Industrial Revolution"
with Joe Lane (University of Reading)
Working paper in-progress
"Skilled in the art: Measuring the quality of knowledge disclosure in historical patent data using linguistic measures"
with Joe Lane (University of Reading)
In-progress
"How to write a patent in thirty days: The effects of enrolment time on the quality of patented knowledge disclosure"
with Joe Lane (University of Reading)
In-progress
"Critiquing GenAI in First-Year Macroeconomics"
The Economics Network (22 June 2026)
"What can we learn about patents and innovation from the past?"
with Alan J. Hanna (Queen's University Belfast) and Joe Lane (University of Reading)
Economic Observatory (30 January 2024)