Jack of fewer trades: Evolution of specialization in research

Abstract

AbstractIt is widely maintained that scientists have become increasingly specialized with a narrow range of expertise ever since the era of “Renaissance men.” However, evidence on scientists' specialization is rather anecdotal. We provide large‐scale evidence to address whether younger generations of inventors have indeed become more specialized, using a unique panel data set of Korean inventors. We also investigate how the degree of specialization evolves over an inventor's research career and how far an inventor switches his or her field of expertise in the technology space over a career.