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on Innovation |
| By: | Kemeny, Tom; Petralia, Sergio; Storper, Michael |
| Abstract: | Although technological change is widely credited as driving the last 200 years of economic growth, its role in shaping patterns of inequality remains under-explored. Drawing parallels across two industrial revolutions in the United States, this paper provides new evidence of a relationship between highly disruptive forms of innovation and spatial inequality. Using the universe of patents granted between 1920 and 2010 by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), we identify disruptive innovations through their rapid growth, complementarity with other innovations and widespread use. We then assign more and less disruptive innovations to subnational regions in the geography of the United States. We document three findings that are new to the literature. First, disruptive innovations exhibit distinctive spatial clustering in phases understood to be those in which industrial revolutions reshape the economy; they are increasingly dispersed in other periods. Second, we discover that the ranks of locations that capture the most disruptive innovation are relatively unstable across industrial revolutions. Third, regression estimates suggest a role for disruptive innovation in regulating overall patterns of spatial output and income inequality. |
| Keywords: | industrial revolutions; inequality; innovation; regional development; technological change |
| JEL: | J31 O30 O33 O51 |
| Date: | 2022–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:115953&r= |
| By: | Philipp Brunner; Igor Letina; Armin Schmutzler |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a novel theory of research joint ventures for financially constrained firms. When firms choose R&D portfolios, an RJV can help to coordinate research efforts, reducing investments in duplicate projects. This can free up resources, increase the variety of pursued projects and thereby increase the probability of discovering the innovation. RJVs improve innovation outcomes when market competition is weak and external financing conditions are bad. An RJV may increase the innovation probability and nevertheless lower total R&D costs. RJVs that increase innovation tend to be profitable, but innovation-reducing RJVs also exist. Finally, we compare RJVs to innovation-enhancing mergers. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Research Joint Ventures, Financial Constraints, Mergers, Intensity of Competition, Licensing |
| JEL: | L13 L24 O31 |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ube:dpvwib:dp2205&r= |
| By: | Ashish Arora; Wesley M. Cohen; Honggi Lee; Divya Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Do large firms produce more valuable inventions, and if so, why? After confirming that large firms indeed produce more valuable inventions, we consider two possible sources: a superior ability to invent, or a superior ability to extract value from their inventions. We develop a simple model that discriminates between the two explanations. Using a sample of 2,786 public corporations, and measures of both patent quality and patent value, we find that, while average invention value rises with size, average invention quality declines, suggesting, per our model, that the large firm advantage is not due to superior inventive capability, but due to the superior ability to extract value. We provide evidence suggesting that this superior ability to extract value is due to greater commercialization capabilities of larger firms. |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30354&r= |
| By: | Kyle HIGHAM; NAGAOKA Sadao |
| Abstract: | While language barriers are well-known obstacles to knowledge diffusion, quantitative research on this topic is sparse. In this work, we attempt to fill this gap by providing causal evidence on their effects on the speed of knowledge diffusion by exploiting the introduction of pre-grant publications by the American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) in 2000. We find that this policy significantly accelerated, relative to Japanese inventors, US inventors’ use of Japan-originating technical knowledge in their patents. Our analysis controls for biases of patent citations as proxies of knowledge flow, including preference for citing local prior art. Consistent with incentives for translation, this acceleration is much larger for small firms and the firms with little investment in the Japanese market. Consistent with high uncertainty of foreign patents before translation, we see much larger effects of the AIPA on the patent applications with higher quality. Our findings suggest that pre-grant publication provides a significant public good for cumulative innovation through earlier translations of foreign patents. |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:22074&r= |
| By: | Bracht, Felix; Czarnitzki, Dirk |
| Abstract: | We investigate how intangible capital in form of intellectual property, such as patents, might mitigate financing constraints. While scholars have already argued that patents might have a signalling value reducing information asymmetries between borrowers and lenders, we quantify the value of using patents as collateral with regard to capital access. Although this mechanism of patents in financing further R&D is not new, we are the first to provide a treatment effects study of patent collateral and access to capital. We make use of mandatory collateral registry data in Sweden and the Netherlands to construct panels combining firm-level financial data and patent measures. Estimating conditional difference-in-difference regressions on firms' debt allows deducting treatment effects of using patents as collateral. We find that patent pledging enables Swedish (Dutch) firms to borrow about 21% (26%) more than in the counterfactual situation in which no patents would have been used as collateral. We also find that the collateral value of patents is higher than their signalling value, and a back-of-the-envelope scenario calculation shows that Dutch (Swedish) firms could raise more than € 7 (€ 10) billion additional debt capital if the complete patent portfolios would be pledged, all else constant. |
| Keywords: | Financing Constraints,Collateral,Intangible Assets,Patents,Treatment Effects Estimation |
| JEL: | O30 O34 G31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:22033&r= |
| By: | David Popp; Francesco Vona; Myriam Gregoire-Zawilski; Giovanni Marin |
| Abstract: | The costs of low-carbon energy fell dramatically over the past decade, leading to rapid growth in its deployment. However, many challenges remain to deploy low-carbon energy at a scale necessary to meet net zero carbon emission targets. If net zero goals are to be met, developing complementary technologies and skills will be a necessary part of the next wave of low-carbon energy innovation. These include both improvements in physical capital, such as smart grids to aid integration of intermittent renewables, and human capital, to develop the skills workers need for a low-carbon economy. We document recent trends in energy innovation and discuss the lessons learnt for policy. We then discuss the potential role for complementary innovation in both physical capital—using smart grids as an example of how policy can help—and human capital, where we show how a task approach to labor informs policy and research on the worker skills needed for the energy transition. |
| JEL: | J24 O31 O38 Q42 Q55 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30343&r= |
| By: | Auriol, Emmanuelle; Biancini, Sara; Paillacar, Rodrigo |
| Abstract: | The paper proposes an empirical analysis of the determinants of the adoption of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and their impact on innovation in manufac- turing. The analysis is conducted with panel data covering 112 countries. First we show that IPR protection is U-shaped with respect to a country’s market size and inverse-U-shaped with respect to the aggregated market size of its trade partners. Second, reinforcing IPR protection reduces on-the-frontier and inside-the-frontier innovation in developing countries, without necessarily increasing innovation at the global level. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Rights; Innovation; Developing Countries; Market Potential; Trade |
| JEL: | F12 F13 F15 L13 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2022–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:127263&r= |