A ranking of the value of patents granted by legal protection

This paper aims at ranking the value of legal patent protection among countries, using the real options approach. In particular, we manage to overcome the problem of the lack of data for those countries that do not collect patent renewal data. The econometric technique we propose is well grounded in economic theory, specifically in the real options literature. Following this estimation strategy, we rank the value of legal patent protection for seventeen countries, closely reproducing other rankings based on surveys, for instance the PatVal survey by the EU Commission (2006), but relying on macro data publicly available and easy to access.Legal protection, intellectual property, real option, value of patent.

The role of internationalization as a determinant of innovation performance: an analysis of 42 countries

This paper analyses the impact of internationalization on the innovation performance of 42 countries. Innovation performance – the dependent variable – is measured by the number of triad patents and PCT applications that originate from a country. The following internationalization variables – independent variables – are used: inward and outward stock of FDI, exports and imports as well as the number of parent companies in a country. Information on patents and the internationalization variables, together with further explanatory variables, including the number of scientific articles in a country, the number of Internet users, the R&D intensity and the share of value added in services, are collected for the years 1990 to 2008. Regressions are performed for all countries together, and, then, for two groups of countries clustered on the basis of their GDP per capita. We estimate two linear models, one based on pooled data estimating the classic linear model, and one on panel data, estimating a fixed effects linear model. The values of our dependent variables lead by up to six years for two reasons: to account for the time that elapses between an invention and the recording of the patent statistic, and, to address at least to some extent, issues associated with endogeneity in our independent variables. The paper finds support for a positive impact of internationalization on countries’ innovation performance. Our analyses suggest that competing in international markets via outward FDI and exports increases the scope of learning and the need to innovate. We find evidence of a negative relationship between patenting and inward FDI as well as imports. We interpret our results to indicate that (a) the inward inflow of investment or products can be less innovation-intensive than a country’s domestic activities which would be the case for more advanced and innovation-active countries; or (b) that a country does not have a sufficient absorption capacity to benefit from inflows

An Introduction to the Patstat Database with Example Queries

This paper provides an introduction to the Patstat patent database. It offers guided examples of ten popular queries that are relevant for research purposes and that cover the most important data tables. It is targeted at academic researchers and practitioners willing to learn the basics of the database.Comment: To appear in the Australian Economic Revie

Are R&D subsidies provided optimally? Evidence from a simulated agency-firm stochastic dynamic game

By means of a simulated funding-agency/supported-firm stochastic dynamic game, this paper firstly shows that not only the level of R&D performed by firms is underprovided (as maintained by traditional literature on the subject), but also the level of the subsidy provided by the funding (public) agency (used to correct exactly for the corporate R&D shortage). This event is due to externalities generated by the agency-firm strategic relationship. Two versions of the model are simulated and compared: one assuming rival behaviors between companies and agency, and one associated to the Social-planner (or cooperative) strategy. Secondly, the paper looks at what “welfare” implications are associated to different degree of funding effect’s persistency. Three main conclusions are drawn: (i) the relative quota of subsidy to R&D is undersized in the rival compared to the Social-planner model; (2) the rivalry strategy generates distortions that favor the agency compared to firms; (3) when passing from less persistent to more persistent R&D additionality/crowding-out effect, the lower the bias the greater the variance is and vice versa. As for the management of R&D funding policies, all the elements favouring greater collaboration between agency and firm objectives can help current R&D support to reach its social optimum.R&D subsidies, Rivalry vs. cooperation, Dynamic-stochastic games, Simulations

The effects of foreign R&D and triadic patent propensity on developing economies efficiency and convergence

This research relies on the theory of endogenous growth, where the role of foreign imported capital and triadic patent propensity is assumed to endogenously determine the growth process of a group of 36 developing and emerging economies for the years 1990-2010. Our results confirm the monotonicity hypothesis from both foreign imported technology and triadic patent propensity toward technical efficiency improvement with no indication of pure TFP growth. The results indicate that initial foreign capital and initial triadic patent propensity only minimally improve the technical efficiency change for a small number of economies with nearly halve of the sample deviating from the convergence point

Absorptive Capacity and Efficiency: A Comparative Stochastic Frontier Approach Using Sectoral Data

In this paper, we investigate differences in and determinants of technical efficiency across three groups of OECD, Asian and Latin American countries. As technical efficiency determines the capacity with which countries absorb technology produced abroad, these differences are important to understand differences in growth and productivity across countries, especially for developing countries which depend to a large extend on foreign technology. Using a stochastic frontier framework and data for 22 manufacturing sectors for 1996-2005, we find notable differences in technical efficiency between the three country groups we examine. We then investigate the effect of human capital and domestic R&D, proxied by the stock of patents, on technical efficiency. We find that while human capital has always a strongly positive effect on efficiency, an increase in the stock of patents has positive effects on efficiency in high-tech sectors, but negative effects in low-tech sectors

A policy to boost R&D: Does the R&D tax credit work?

In this article we address various issues raised by the evaluation of the R&D tax credit policy. We first consider the studies that estimate the direct effects of the tax credit on R&D inputs. We discuss results obtained through different approaches and methods and show that they give a contrasted picture of the policy’s effectiveness. Next we argue that a comprehensive evaluation of the R&D tax credit should include other outcomes and present studies focussing on them. We also initiate a very tentative meta-analysis to obtain a more synthetic view on the various evaluation results. We finally conclude that harmonization and increased comparability in evaluation studies would be useful to bridge the gab between evaluation and policy design and implementation.R&D; R&D tax credit; R&D capital; capital use cost; evaluation; meta-analysis

R&D capital and economic growth: The empirical evidence

This paper reviews the empirical literature on rates of return on R&D and interprets the economic significance of these estimates using a semi-endogenous growth model with a calibrated knowledge production sector. We analyse how R&D subsidies, a reduction of entry barriers for start-ups and increasing high-skilled labour would contribute towards raising productivity and knowledge investment in the EU. The simulation results show that substantial efforts will have to be made if Europe wants to come close to achieving the Lisbon productivity and knowledge-investment targets. Achieving US standards in all three areas would reduce the productivity gap by about 50 percent. Improving the quality of tertiary education and increasing competition in non-manufacturing sectors would also help the EU to get to the productivity frontier.Productivity differences; endogenous growth; R&D; DSGE models

Business R&D expenditure and capital in Europe

This study presents new estimates of business R&D capital stocks for 22 countries at the aggregate and industry levels. At 9 percent of GDP, the EU business R&D capital stock falls short of its US and Japanese counterparts. Within the EU, R&D capital stocks are much lower in the southern and the new member states, reflecting large and persistent disparities in R&D expenditure. There was hardly any convergence over the past decade. The R&D capital stock is concentrated on three technologyintensive manufacturing industries and is positively correlated with growth in total factor productivity across countries and industries. Finally, the ratios between the stocks of R&D capital and tangible capital suggest marked differences in how R&D and tangible capital are combined in production.R&D capital stock; R&D expenditure; tangible capital stock; R&D intensity; high-tech manufacturing

Measuring intangible capital and its contribution to economic growth in Europe

This study describes the state of the art in the measurement of intangible capital and its contribution to economic growth, with a focus on an international comparison of intangible capital deepening among eleven advanced economies. By employing a broad measure of intangibles, including computerized information, innovative property and economic competencies, we find a relatively large impact on growth. Intangible capital explains about a quarter of labour-productivity in the US and larger countries of the EU. The continental West-European countries show a distinction between countries with significant contributions from intangible capital deepening and a group of laggards. Catching-up countries such as the Czech Republic, Greece and Slovakia show much larger contributions from tangible capital deepening than from intangibles, and also larger multi-factor productivity (MFP) growth rates related to the restructuring of those countries.Economic growth; productivity; capital; innovation