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on Intellectual Property Rights |
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Issue of 2021‒03‒01
four papers chosen by Giovanni Ramello Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” |
| By: | Nicholas Bloom (Stanford University - Department of Economics; NBER); Steven J. Davis (University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; NBER; Hoover Institution); Yulia Zhestkova (University of Chicago - Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the text content of U.S. patent applications, identifying those that advance technologies in support of video conferencing, telecommuting, remote interactivity, and working from home (collectively, WFH). The share of new patent applications that advance WFH technologies more than doubles from January to September of 2020, greatly surpassing its previous peak, and following an upward trajectory since the onset of the pandemic. This evidence suggests that (re-)directed technical change in reaction to COVID-19 will raise the quality and efficiency of remote work, thereby reinforcing a shift to working from home even after the pandemic ends. |
| Keywords: | Directed technical change, patents, COVID-19, coronavirus, working from home, remote interactivity, text analysis |
| JEL: | O3 J21 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2020-133&r=all |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | The federal government is a major purchaser of prescription drugs, both directly through federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense, and indirectly through federal health insurance programs, such as Medicare Part D. In this report, CBO describes how the prices of brand-name prescription drugs are determined in different federal programs and compares drug prices among those programs in 2017. |
| JEL: | I10 I11 I13 I18 |
| Date: | 2021–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:56978&r=all |
| By: | Nomaler, Önder (UNU-MERIT); Verspagen, Bart (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | We present a number of green technology patent landscaping exercises, based on a method that we developed earlier to identify the main technological trends in a very large (i.e., universal) patent citation network comprising all patented technologies. This method extracts a so-called network of main paths, where we interpret each path as a technological trajectory in the sense of Dosi (1982). We use co-occurrence on the technological trajectories as the main metric to build a network of technological relations, with green/non-green, the technology class (4-digit IPC classes) and geographical location (countries) as the main dimensions along which we observe green technology. The technology landscaping exercise visualises these networks. In this way, we draw a detailed map of green technologies (along with the particular non-green technologies that contribute thereto or benefit therefrom), in which we find both very broad and general areas (such as ICT or medical and health), and specific green technologies, such as batteries, wind power and electric vehicles. In the geography- based map, we find specific European and non-European areas. In all our landscaping maps, non-green technologies play a large role, indicating that sectoral and geographical progress in greentech cannot be fully understood independently of developments in particular fields of non-greentech technologies. |
| Keywords: | green technology, technological trajectories, patent citations, patent landscaping |
| JEL: | O31 O33 Q55 |
| Date: | 2021–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2021005&r=all |
| By: | Kazuo Nishimura (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University and Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), JAPAN); Dai Miyamoto (Graduate School of Economics, Doshisha University, JAPAN); Tadashi Yagi (Graduate School of Economics, Doshisha University, JAPAN) |
| Abstract: | The numbers of published scientific papers and patent applications are indicators of a country's research and development (R&D) capabilities. Since the 2010s, these indicators have declined in Japan. One important factor for this decline is the changes in science and mathematics education provided at schools because education in school can greatly impact the quality of future researchers in science. To examine the impact of the number of class hours in science and mathematics that researchers received in school over the past 50 years, this study analyzed data from two surveys conducted in 2016 and 2020. The results show that there is a decline in the number of patents for the younger generation that cannot be explained by age differences, and it is highly correlated with a decline in the total number of hours of science and math in junior high school. Therefore, a country's educational policies should be implemented only after validating their effects from a long-term perspective because such policies may have unintended negative impacts on the country's economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Research and development capabilities; Number of patent applications; Science and mathematics education; Number of class hours |
| JEL: | I23 I28 O32 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2021-02&r=all |