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on Intellectual Property Rights |
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Issue of 2020‒03‒02
four papers chosen by Giovanni Ramello Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” |
| By: | Dany Bahar (Center for International Development at Harvard University); Hillel Rapoport |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between the presence of migrant inventors and the dynamics of innovation in the migrants’ receiving countries. We find that countries are 25 to 60 percent more likely to gain advantage in patenting in certain technologies given a twofold increase in the number of foreign inventors from other nations that specialize in those same technologies. For the average country in our sample, this number corresponds to only 25 inventors and a standard deviation of 135. We deal with endogeneity concerns by using historical migration networks to instrument for stocks of migrant inventors. Our results generalize the evidence of previous studies that show how migrant inventors "import" knowledge from their home countries, which translates into higher patenting in the receiving countries. We interpret these results as tangible evidence of migrants facilitating the technology-specific diffusion of knowledge across nations. |
| Keywords: | innovation, migration, patent, technology, knowledge |
| JEL: | O31 O33 F22 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cid:wpfacu:124a&r=all |
| By: | Annita Nugent; Ho Fai Chan; Uwe Dulleck |
| Abstract: | Government investment in university research results in greater output and impact. To better capture economic benefits stemming from university research, governments have developed funding programs specifically targeting university-industry collaboration. However, little is known about the success of university-industry targeted (U-I targeted) grants. In this study we evaluate the effect of one such scheme, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project scheme, by comparing it to its non-targeted sister scheme, the ARC Discovery Project scheme. Having in common selection criteria, grant assessors, awardees, magnitude of funding and duration, the schemes differ in the requirement for an industry partner. We measure capture of economic benefit by patent applications filed and granted. Interrogating the effect of targeted funding at a university level we find award of U-I targeted grants coincides with increased patent activity compared to non-targeted grants. Exploring the dynamics of the relationship, we observe the effect of U-I targeted grants on patent activity is short lived at an inventor level. Further, the propensity for patent activity is influenced by the ratio of U-I targeted to non-targeted grants held at a university level, but not at an inventor level. |
| Keywords: | research funding, patent, university-industry collaboration, grants |
| JEL: | O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8032&r=all |
| By: | Marc Bourreau; Marianne Lumeau; Francois Moreau; Jordana Viotto da Cruz |
| Abstract: | The emergence of online providers aggregating illegal content from streaming platforms is rekindling the debate about online piracy. In the past, the discussion mainly focused on the impact of piracy in content industries and the effect of anti-piracy measures. But little is known about one crucial aspect of piracy: consumers’ motivations to use illegal channels. Yet, understanding consumers’ behavior could help practitioners and policymakers to allocate their resources better to fight online piracy. In this paper, we fill this gap by focusing on two main motives for the illegal consumption of online content: paying lower (zero) prices and having access to content that is not available in legal channels. To disentangle the role of each motivation in consumers’ choice, we ran a laboratory experiment with real consumption, a methodology that provides participants with incentives to reveal their true preferences about consumption while controlling for the choice environment and the consideration set. Our results suggest that consumers turn to illegal channels primarily to save on the price of content, and that they are less sensitive to the availability of content in legal and illegal channels. We discuss the implications of our findings for practitioners and policymakers. |
| Keywords: | piracy, digitization, movies, free, release windows, experiment |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8036&r=all |
| By: | Michael Fritsch; Michael Wyrwich |
| Abstract: | We investigate the geographic concentration of patenting in large cities using a sample of 14 developed countries. There is wide dispersion of the share of patented inventions in large metropolitan areas. South Korea and the US are two extreme outliers where patenting is highly concentrated in large cities. We do not find any general trend that there is a geographic concentration of patents for the period 2000-2014. There is also no general trend that inventors in large cities have more patents than in rural areas (scaling). Hence, while agglomeration economies of large cities may offer advantages for innovation activities, the extent of these advantages is not very large. We conclude that popular theories over-emphasize the importance of large cities for innovation activities. |
| Keywords: | innovation, patents, cities, urban scaling, creativity |
| JEL: | O31 R12 O57 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2010&r=all |