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on Innovation |
| By: | Svensson, Roger (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to present a unique database on commercialized patents and to illustrate how it can be used to analyze the commercialization process of patents. The dataset is based on a survey of Swedish patents owned by inventors and small firms with a remarkably high response rate of 80 percent. It contains some key variables on commercialization not found anywhere else, including whether, when and how (acquisition, licensing, existing or new firm) patents were commercialized as well as whether this commercialization was profitable or not. Thus, this patent database measures technological innovation. The dataset is complemented with indicators of patent quality (patent renewal, forward citations, and patent family) from archive sources. Basic statistics for the key variables are described. Finally, the scientific output in terms of published articles in peer-reviewed journals shows how this database can be used to analyze the commercialization process of patents. The dataset has, for instance, been used to 1) evaluate government loan programs for inventors; 2) analyze the different roles of the inventor and the Schumpeterian entrepreneur during commercialization; 3) estimate the transfer of tacit knowledge when patents are sold or licensed; and 4) analyze the entry strategy among inventors in oligopolistic markets. |
| Keywords: | Patents; Commercialization; Innovation; Small firms; Inventors; Acquisition; Licensing; New start-up firms; Forward citations; Renewal; Patent equivalents; Financing; Entry strategy; Venture capital |
| JEL: | G24 G34 L10 L20 M13 O30 O31 O32 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2020–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1349&r=all |
| By: | Michael D. Frakes; Melissa F. Wasserman |
| Abstract: | The debate surrounding escalating prescription drug prices has increasingly focused on the legitimacy of the practice of brand-name manufacturers receiving patent protection on peripheral features of the drug such as the route of administration, as opposed to just the active-ingredient itself. The key question is whether these later-obtained, secondary patents protect novel features and represent true innovation or, instead, provide little to no innovative benefit and improperly delay generic entry. In this paper, we explore how the Patent Office may improve the quality of the secondary patents issued—thereby reducing the degree of unnecessary and harmful delays of generic entry—by giving examiners more time to review patent applications. Our findings suggest that current examiner time allocations are causing patent examiners to issue low quality secondary patents on the margin. We further set forth evidence suggesting that the costs to investing in greater ex ante scrutiny of secondary pharmaceutical patent applications by the Patent Office are greatly outweighed by the benefits, which include the avoidance of downstream litigation expenses and gains to consumer and total surplus from reduced drug prices. |
| JEL: | I18 O34 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27579&r=all |
| By: | Georg von Graevenitz (QMUL School of Business and Management); Antanina Garanasvili (Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management, Bournemouth University) |
| Abstract: | The European Patent System consists of national patent offices (NPOs) and the supranational European Patent Office (EPO). EPO and the NPOs have granted patents in Europe side-by-side since 1980. The resulting patent system is complicated and less coordinated than might be expected. Firms must consider a number of variables when selecting the route of patenting they take within this system: price, rigour of examination, duration of examination, quality of legal redress. To date there is little descriptive evidence on how firms choose between EPO and national offices. This paper provides a rich descriptive analysis of patenting in Europe. We analyze how origin, size and technological focus of companies, affect how they choose among patent offices within the EPS and report differences in examination durations and grant rates across patent offices. |
| Date: | 2018–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:ueaccp:2018_12&r=all |
| By: | Mensah, Emmanuel B. (Maastricht University, UNU-MERIT); Owusu, Solomon (Maastricht University, UNU-MERIT); Foster-McGregor, Neil (Maastricht University, UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | The peculiar nature of African development presents unique technological challenges. This often requires African-induced innovation or a combination of frontier and local technologies to solve problems unique to Africa. However, most researchers study technological change in Africa in relation to some globally defined technology frontier. The diffusion of knowledge from this global frontier to other regions however decreases in intensity with geographic and relational distance. Given that African countries are geographically and relationally close to each other, this paper makes a departure from this existing literature and studies technological change and technological catch up within African by considering catch-up with respect to an African technology leader. We do this by using structural methods (Shift and Share catch-up decomposition) and nonparametric methods (Data Envelopment Analysis) to estimate an African production frontier. We further measure productivity change in sub-Saharan Africa and disentangle the change due to general technological progress and efficiency change using the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). Our results show that Botswana and Mauritius are the only two countries in Africa which have converged to the productivity level as well as the efficiency level of the frontier. This successful convergence is driven more by efficiency catch-up and less by technological change. We explore the special role of efficiency catch-up by decomposing it into within-sector convergence, between -sector convergence and initial specialization. The results highlight the special role of structural change in catch-up. This paper contributes to recent evidence suggesting that countries can climb up the income ladder at a faster rate through a two-pronged transformation – i.e. structural change and technological catch-up. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Technological change, Technological Catch-up, Economic Growth |
| JEL: | O30 O47 N17 |
| Date: | 2020–08–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2020033&r=all |
| By: | Fusillo, Fabrizio (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | A large body of existing literature extensively studied the economic deter-minants and effects of environmental innovations. However, only a few studiesanalyzed the specific features of green technologies in the early phasesof theinvention process. The aim of this paper is to investigate knowledgerecombi-nation patterns in the green domain. The focus is on identifying whether andhow different bodies of technology are combined and integrated. Exploitinga large sample of European patent data, from 1980 to 2012, the paper inves-tigates the degree of diversity in the knowledge sources and the generationphase of green inventions. Using the Integration Score as an index of techno-logical diversity we compare the recombinant features of Green Technologieswith a control sample of “Traditional Technologies†, accurately drawn fromthe universe of all patent applications. Empirical results suggest that, aftercontrolling for a number of typical characteristics which may affect diversity,Green Technologies systematically show a higher degree of diversitywhencompared to non-green ones. |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:202015&r=all |
| By: | Nguena, Christian-Lambert |
| Abstract: | There is a momentous debate on the role played by financial technology (fintech) innovation in the fragility of the banking sector. Considering the importance of financial solidness, contradictory theoretical predictions and empirical evidence, the in-depth re-investigation of this relation is needed. Using data of 690 banks across 34 Sub Saharan African countries for the period 1999-2015 along with FGLS, GMM, Panel Threshold regression and PCA econometric method, this paper empirically examines the influence of fintech innovation on bank fragility. Mainly the destabilizing impact of fintech innovation is confirmed for our baseline investigation but later relativized with a stabilizing impact after a certain threshold. Moreover, the results highlight also that the macroeconomic environment is important in explaining bank fragility and suggested that public policy should take into account some specific destabilizing consequences on the banking system. Besides, the simultaneous hypothesis test of the innovationfragility nexus conditional to some relevant variables reveals that financial openness does matter while investment, commercial openness and monetary policy do not. Lastly, the comparative analysis validates our heterogeneity hypothesis; countries with the high size banking sector, colonialized by France and members of monetary union performs better than the others in terms of bank solidness. These results indicate that suitable fintech innovation policy even between the same regions could be rather different. Financial instability appeared also to increase bank fragility. This paper contributes to the limited literature on fintech innovation at both the macro and micro levels in sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Keywords: | Fintech innovation,Bank fragility,Threshold regression,Technology transformation,FGLS,GMM,PCA |
| JEL: | G21 G28 G15 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:576&r=all |
| By: | Alje van Dam; Koen Frenken |
| Abstract: | Against the background of renewed interest in vertical support policies targeting specific industries or technologies, we investigate the effects of vertical vs. horizontal policies in a combinatorial model of economic development. In the framework we propose, an economy develops by acquiring new capabilities allowing for the production of an ever greater variety of products with an increasing complexity. Innovation policy can aim to expand the number of capabilities (vertical policy) or the ability to combine capabilities (horizontal policy). The model shows that for low-income countries, the two policies are complementary. For high-income countries that are specialised in the most complex products, focusing on horizontal policy only yields the highest returns. We reflect on the model results in the light of the contemporary debate on vertical policy. |
| Keywords: | capabilities, the hump, complexity, innovation policy, vertical policy, innovation system, general purpose technologies, systemic policy, mission-oriented innovation policy |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2037&r=all |
| By: | Adriana Peluffo (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this work is to analyze the effect of innovation on labor demand, particularly, the level of employment and the skills composition of the labor force, in level and growth rates. Additionally, we analyze the ratio of skilled to unskilled labor and wages. The data for this study come from the Innovation Surveys for Uruguayan manufacturing and service firms over the 2000-2015 period matched with the Industrial Surveys of Economic Activity. We analyze the whole sample and each sector according to technological/knowledge intensity and firm size. Our results for ordinary least squares, instrumental variables, and generalized method of moments show positive effects of innovation in the level of total employment and skilled workers, its rate of growth, and wages. Product and Enhancing productivity innovation show positive impact on employment. Splitting by manufacturing firms we observe that product innovation affect growth in employment for high-tech firms while organizational innovation and productivity enhancing innovation affects growth in skilled labor with a greater effect for low-tech firms, while organizational innovation affects growth in skilled labor and in the share of skilled labor. Small manufacturing and service firms are less responsive to innovation. Growth in employment of service firms are affected mainly by organizational innovation and productivity enhancing innovation. Thus, enhancing productivity innovation and its component of organizational innovation seems to play an important role on employment growth. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Skilled Labor, Product Innovation, Process Innovation |
| JEL: | D2 J23 L1 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-13-20&r=all |
| By: | Marianna Epicoco; Magali Jaoul-Grammare; Anne Plunket |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at providing further empirical evidence on the long-run relationship between technology and productivity by using a cliometric approach based on Granger’s causality. We test, for the first time, the sign and direction of causality between technological novelty, which is an important driver of radical technological innovations, and productivity, for the whole 20th century. Technological novelty is here proxied by the degree of component recombination of inventions. We find that both the flow and stock of Technologically Novel Inventions (TNI) have an important, but temporary, positive impact on productivity, and that these inventions are originated by a handful of leading technological fields, mainly concentrated in the sectors of specialized suppliers of capital equipment and in science based sectors. Our results also show that, at the aggregate level, there is no causal relationship running from productivity to TNI, which suggests that radical technologies are exogenous, i.e., independent of productivity variations. However, we also find that, at technological field level, productivity has a positive or negative impact on TNI, depending on the field. This instead suggests that some radical technologies are endogenous. We conclude by discussing implications of these results on the productivity stagnation since the 1970s and the current productivity slowdown. |
| Keywords: | Technological novelty; Radical technologies; Productivity; Component recombination; Cliometrics; Granger’s causality. |
| JEL: | O33 O40 C32 N12 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2020-37&r=all |