“Singling out individual inventors from patent data”

An increasing number of studies in recent years have sought to identify individual inventors from patent data. A variety of heuristics have been proposed for using the names and other information disclosed in patent documents to establish “who is who” in patents. This paper contributes to this literature by describing a methodology for identifying inventors using patents applied to the European Patent Office (EPO hereafter). As in much of this literature, we basically follow a three-step procedure: (1) the parsing stage, aimed at reducing the noise in the inventor’s name and other fields of the patent; (2) the matching stage, where name matching algorithms are used to group similar names; and (3) the filtering stage, where additional information and various scoring schemes are used to filter out these similarly-named inventors. The paper presents the results obtained by using the algorithms with the set of European inventors applying to the EPO over a long period of time.“Names game”, patent data, unique inventors, name matching algorithms. JEL classification:C8, J61, O31, O33, R0.

“What attracts knowledge workers? The role of space, social connections, institutions, jobs and amenities”

The aim of the present paper is to identify the determinants of the geographical mobility of skilled individuals, such as inventors, across European regions. Their mobility contributes to the geographical diffusion of knowledge and reshapes the geography of talent. We test whether geography, amenities, job opportunities and social proximity between inventors’ communities, and the so-called National System of Innovation, drive in- and out-flows of inventors between pairs of regions. We use a control function approach to address the endogenous nature of social proximity, and zero-inflated negative binomial models to accommodate our estimations to the count nature of the dependent variable and the high number of zeros it contains. Our results highlight the importance of physical proximity in driving the mobility patterns of inventors. However, job opportunities, social and institutional relations, and technological and cultural proximity also play key roles in mediating this phenomenon.inventors’ mobility, gravity model, amenities, job opportunities, social and institutional proximities, zero-inflated negative binomial, European regions. JEL classification: C8, J61, O31, O33, R0

Singling out individual inventors from patent data

An increasing number of studies in recent years have sought to identify individual inventors from patent data. A variety of heuristics have been proposed for using the names and other information disclosed in patent documents to establish who is who in patents. This paper contributes to this literature by describing a methodology for identifying inventors using patents applied to the European Patent Office, EPO hereafter. As in much of this literature, we basically follow a threestep procedure : 1- the parsing stage, aimed at reducing the noise in the inventor’s name and other fields of the patent; 2- the matching stage, where name matching algorithms are used to group similar names; and 3- the filtering stage, where additional information and various scoring schemes are used to filter out these similarlynamed inventors. The paper presents the results obtained by using the algorithms with the set of European inventors applying to the EPO over a long period of time

Corporatismo y relaciones laborales en Europa en tiempo de crisis

Se analizan los acuerdos laborales producidos en el Reino Unido, República Federal de Alemania, Italia y Francia, y la bibliografía académica que hay sobre el tema utilizando un modelo corporativista. La actividad política y las negociaciones de los sindicatos en la crisis económica del momento van más allá de los límites de la empresa y el proceso de producción. Se examinan el comportamiento, el centralismo y la burocratización de los sindicatos y las repercusiones de las estrategias empresariales respecto a las relaciones laborales. Se llega a la conclusión de que la crisis económica ha provocado la ruptura de la estrategia corporativista en Europa, no sólo a causa de la falta de interés de los gobiernos sino también porque los sindicatos han encontrado una gran dificultad en hacer aceptable para sus miembros el concepto

Does social capital reinforce technological inputs in the creation of knowledge? Evidence from the Spanish regions.

In this paper we seek to verify the hypothesis that trust and cooperation between individuals, and between them and public institutions, can encourage technological innovation and the adoption of knowledge. Additionally, we test the extent to which the interaction of social capital with human capital and R&D expenditures improve their effect on a region’s ability to innovate. Our empirical evidence is taken from the Spanish regions and employs a knowledge production function and longitudinal count data models. Our results suggest that social capital correlates positively with innovation. Further, our analysis reveals a powerful interaction between human and social capital in the production of knowledge, whilst the complementarity with R&D efforts would seem less clear.social capital, human capital, innovation, complementarities.

Inmigración e integración

Carlota SOLÉ, La integración socio-cultural de los inmigrantes en Cataluña. Madrid: CIS, 1981