|
on Innovation |
| By: | Margherita Gerolimetto (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Stefano Magrini (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Alessandro Spiganti (University of Genoa) |
| Abstract: | We study the causal effect of the local supply of sector-specific innovators on patenting activity across US metropolitan areas, distinguishing between innovators active in carbon-intensive ("brown") and environmentally sustainable ("green") technological fields. Using USPTO patent data from 1990 to 2016, we document a marked shift in the geography of green innovation: while brown patenting has long been concentrated in established hubs, green patents — initially more dispersed — have increasingly converged toward the same locations. We build a theoretical framework in which local patenting activity is driven by the supply of green and brown innovators, investigating how their interaction shapes the innovation process. Empirically, we address endogeneity using a shift-share instrument that combines predetermined local technological specialization with exogenous shocks to foreign innovation across CPC sections. We find that a one-unit increase in the local supply of brown innovators raises patenting activity by approximately 0.8%, an effect that is robust across specifications. Together, these findings suggest that green innovation is becoming increasingly embedded in existing agglomeration ecosystems, with important implications for place-based climate policy. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration, climate change, innovation, spatial distribution, patents |
| JEL: | O31 O33 O44 O47 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2026:14 |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Schaper, Thomas; Schwierzy, Julian |
| Abstract: | Competitive public research funding is an important policy instrument to foster scientific progress. The effective design of such funding schemes and whether they generate knowledge spillovers to industrial inventions, however, remains debated. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of geographically localized forum grants - Clusters of Excellence - awarded for additive manufacturing research under Germany's Excellence Initiative from 2006-2012. Using synthetic difference-in-differences estimation, we find that Clusters increased local scientific output in funding-related domains in the right tail of the scientific impact distribution - as measured by article citations - compared to non-funded applicant groups in similar locations. While patenting by nearby firms remained unaffected at the extensive margin, we find evidence for significant knowledge spillovers to local industry. These manifested as a rise in the number of high-impact firm patents confined to related technical areas, and Clusters receiving a significantly larger number of prior art citations from industry patents, compared to the control group, which were geographically localized and confined to top publications. Our findings support the effectiveness of forum-based funding programs for top science and provide dual implications for research and industrial policy. |
| Keywords: | Frontier science, research funding, knowledge spillovers, industry-science linkages |
| JEL: | I23 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:340105 |
| By: | Steven J. Davis; Nicholas Bloom; Mihai A. Codreanu |
| Abstract: | COVID-19 brought a sharp, unanticipated increase in the usefulness and value of technologies that support work from home (WFH). To investigate how this shock influenced the direction of technical change, we examine the text in 5.6 million U.S. patent applications published from 2010 to 2026. The share of patent applications that advances technologies in support of WFH rose by about two thirds within three years after the pandemic struck and remains about 50% above pre-pandemic levels five years later. The lasting rise in the WFH share of new applications concentrates in telecommunications – especially video conferencing, speech recognition, and audio processing. It is driven overwhelmingly by US corporations rather than foreign assignees or universities. In short, we find evidence that a sudden, lasting rise in WFH redirected innovation to technologies that support it. |
| JEL: | J22 L63 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35083 |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, graphite and rare earth elements are poised to play an increasingly important role in environmental sustainability, emerging technology and defense applications. Innovation can play a vital role in reducing primary demand for them while reducing associated supply chain risks and providing benefits for the environment and human health. This paper examines the intersection of technological innovation, critical raw materials and economic policy. It draws on a review of academic and non-academic literature to analyse the key drivers of innovation in the critical raw material supply chain, as well as how innovation might help drive the reforms needed to establish more secure supply networks and sustainable business practices. It then develops a conceptual framework for categorising innovation across the value chain and types of innovations before assessing emerging policy challenges and opportunities for governments. |
| Keywords: | Batteries, Critical materials, Critical mineral, Critical raw material, Innovation, Materials security, Mining, Rare earth elements, Resource scarcity, Supply chain |
| JEL: | O30 Q55 Q58 O38 |
| Date: | 2026–04–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:envaaa:273-en |
| By: | Lindner, Attila (University College London); Muraközy, Balázs (University of Liverpool); Reizer, Balázs (ELTE - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies); Schreiner, Ragnhild (University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | We quantify the contribution of firm-level technological change to skill demand and aggregate inequality in the presence of imperfect competition in the labor market. We show that skill-biased technological change increases both the firm-level skill ratio and the skill premium, while other shocks (e.g. firm-specific output demand shocks) cannot explain the increase in both outcomes. We exploit administrative data and a large survey measuring a broad class of firm-level technological changes from Hungary and Norway. We estimate that the aggregate college premium increases by 3.4% in Norway and by 4.9% in Hungary as a result of the skill bias in technological change. |
| Keywords: | skill-biased technological change, innovation, skill premiums, imperfect competition |
| JEL: | J31 J24 O30 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18516 |
| By: | Hutschenreiter, Dennis |
| Abstract: | Firms increasingly rely on markets for technology to acquire innovations developed outside their boundaries, yet acquiring intellectual property rights alone often does not guarantee successful implementation. Many technologies depend on tacit know- how that must be supplied by the provider after the transaction is completed. This paper examines whether common ownership between a technology provider and a potential adopter mitigates this implementation problem. I develop a model in which overlapping institutional investors cause the provider to partially internalize the adopter's gains from successful implementation, strengthening incentives to transfer tacit know-how. This mechanism operates only when know-how is unverifiable - absent this friction, common ownership leaves matching and outcomes unchanged. Under moral hazard, the model predicts that common ownership increases the likelihood of technology transfer to a given adopter, that this effect is stronger when tacit know-how is more important, and that common ownership improves post-transfer outcomes conditional on adoption. I test these predictions using U.S. patent reassignments between publicly traded firms. Using within-deal variation across competing potential adopters and plausibly exogenous variation from passive index-fund holdings, I show that common ownership increases the likelihood that a firm acquires a technology, particularly when the transferred bundle is more tacit. Common ownership predicts stronger subsequent innovation and higher future firm value, especially when ownership overlap is concentrated among investors with stronger incentives to monitor the provider. These findings show how ownership structure shapes interfirm technology transfer by affecting not only who acquires a technology, but also how much value is created. |
| Keywords: | common ownership, institutional investors, moral hazard, patent reassignments |
| JEL: | C78 D82 G23 L24 O34 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:340107 |