New relationships between production and patent activity during the high-growth life cycle stage for materials

A comparison of the life cycle plots for the production and patent activity for several materials indicates that the two life cycle plots may be correlated to such an extent that they may be superimposed to a large degree, for all growth-stages, simply by an origin shift. Over fifty metallic and non-metallic materials have been studied. This origin shift may be indicative of the presence of Stage III (high-growth stage). The drive force ratio for innovation-enhanced supply also scales with the origin shift. When the drive force ratio is equal to one, the materials in their Stage III life, are balanced in the amount of resources which impact production and patents. One of the key findings is that materials may be grouped into two groups depending on their drive ratio and the lag ratio in the data sets of the production and patent activity. In the first group, innovation is unable to influence the production activity and consequently materials tend to slide towards Stage IV (i.e. the stage of low average growth with high oscillation) regardless of the fact that patents may impact unit production significantly in this group. The existence of a Stage V (final death stage) is also discussed. It appears that materials that have been recognized to be highly toxic are particularly prone to a Stage V type behavior.     

Generic innovation dynamics across the industrial technology life cycle: Platform equation modeling of invention and innovation activity

We describe here a generic approach to innovation dynamics based on an integrated framework for inventions and innovations applied via a platform equation and model across the industrial technology life cycle. We test the model for metals and other materials, and demonstrate that this model correctly describes the production activity for several materials and energy conversion technologies.Innovation activity patterns are shown for several oxides, metals, oil and wind energy and its derivatives. The metals Cu, Al, W, Mo and Pb are particularly studied for the amount produced over time. The total activity for the metals encompasses both the invention and innovation stage for a particular metal. Four major stages and two sub stages are identified for the discovery (invention) and subsequent growth regimes (i.e. the innovation stage). The pattern equation appears to clearly capture all these stages for the metals studied — work is ongoing for similar analyses of energy and other materials. Although the metals studied existed over differing periods (e.g. copper greater than 200 years whereas aluminum, just over 100 years), one single pattern equation appears to capture all the major trends. The use of the model is also shown for productivity analysis, especially for the condition of radical innovation (very rapid growth). For sustained radical innovation, namely, when the output of the produced material per unit time, keeps on increasing with time, there are various factors which may influence growth. For the conditions where thermal activation and plant size are the dominant variables, their impact on the growth may be examined in the context of the pattern equation. A preliminary analysis of oxide production activity also appears to follow this same innovation model.The results suggest a fertile field of future research extending the initial platform equation model to include R&D, Patents, and Performance, as well as Sales, as innovation activity. Further, the model shows promise in combination with the ARI methodology model for analysis and assessment of existing and future industrial technology life cycles involving material, process, product, software and service innovations.     

产品信息标签的技术诱导效应研究:基于能效标识制度的实证

运用关键词频统计法,构建中国1999-2013年节能节电专利面板数据,以能效标识制度为切入点,从专利数量、相对专利产出和技术重心等指标分析能效标识制度对技术创新的影响,进而考察产品信息标签对技术创新的诱导机制。研究发现:(1)能效等级信号是能效标识制度能否诱导技术创新的关键;(2)能效标识制度对节能节电类专利具有显著正向影响,即能效标识制度对技术创新具有显著诱导效应;(3)能效标识制度不仅能够提升节能节电专利与节水专利之间的比值,而且能够显著提高节能节电专利占所有专利的比例,即该政策导致偏向性技术进步;(4)相对而言,能效标识制度对创新程度较高的发明专利具有更强的诱导效应。为此,完善能效标识制度、推广产品信息标签,有助于引导技术进步,促进社会可持续发展。     

Effects of a blocking patent on R&D with endogenous survival activities

This study analyzes the effect of strengthening patent protection for innovation and economic growth by introducing a blocking patent into the endogenous growth model developed by Furukawa (Econ Lett 121(1):26–29, 2013a), which features survival activity of patent holders in the R&D sector with a variety-expansion model. Results show that strengthening patent protection can raise the economic growth rate and social welfare through an endogenous survival investment. Additionally, this study examines the effects of increasing subsidies for R&D. We find that increasing R&D subsidy rate can negatively affect economic growth and social welfare because of the investment for survival activities. This result shows the novel role of a blocking patent in determining innovation effects of R&D subsidies. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of patent breadth which is another patent instrument in this model on innovation and economic growth. Results show that the growth and welfare effects of the profit-division rule and the subsidy rate for R&D may vary with the size of patent breadth.     

A note on the effect of patents in endogenous growth models

This note examines the effect of patent protection in an endogenous growth model with a generic innovation process. It indicates that increasing patent breadth stimulates innovation when R&D is less intermediates-intensive than production, whereas it has a non-monotonic effect on innovation when the former is more intermediates-intensive than the latter.     

Patent claims and economic growth

This study introduces a blocking patent on horizontal R&D into the endogenous growth model of Chu et al. (2012), which features a blocking patent on vertical R&D. Results show that strengthening patent protection on horizontal R&D promotes vertical innovation (quality improvement) but hinders horizontal innovation (variety expansion). This effect of a horizontal blocking patent on directionality of innovation is opposite to that of the vertical blocking patent analyzed by Chu et al. (2012). Results also show that under mild conditions, strengthening a blocking patent on horizontal innovation as well as on vertical innovation can increase economic growth and social welfare.     

Patents and quality growth in OLG economy

This paper shows how heterogeneity in patent ownership across generations and lifecycle saving considerations qualitatively change the conventional implications of patent policy for quality growth. We study a close Overlapping Generations economy that grows through sequential quality improvements (“quality-ladder”), to show that for plausible values of the Inter-temporal Elasticity of Substitution (a) shorter patent length enhances growth (b) under exogenous innovation size loosening patent breadth protection spurs R&D investment and quality growth and (c) the effect of loosening lagging breadth protection on R&D investment and quality growth under endogenous innovation size depends on patents length. Our findings explore a new channel through which strong patents may hinder innovation and emphasize the importance of coordination in patent-policy across the different dimensions of the patents system.     

低碳试点政策的绿色创新效应评估——来自中国上市公司数据的实证研究

以2000-2016年中国A股上市公司为样本，采用双重差分法评估中国低碳试点政策对企业绿色创新的作用，并进一步分析其作用机理。结果表明：①中国低碳试点政策诱发了地方企业绿色创新行为，显著提高了企业绿色创新绝对水平及相对水平；②相比于命令型工具和自愿型工具，市场型工具是低碳试点城市地方政府促进企业绿色创新行为的有效手段；③从专利类别看，低碳试点政策更有利于推动地方企业在替代能源生产、能源节约以及废弃物管理相关技术领域的绿色创新活动，且相对于绿色发明专利，低碳试点城市地方企业更倾向于绿色实用新型专利；④从企业所有制类别看，低碳试点政策同时诱发了国有企业和民营企业的绿色创新活动，且民营企业比国有企业的绿色创新水平更高。研究结论对中国政府进一步扩大低碳试点实施范围，建立灵活的市场型工具具有一定启示意义。     

R&D, patents and stock return volatility

Recent finance literature highlights the role of technological change in increasing firm specific (idiosyncratic) and aggregate stock return volatility, yet innovation data is not used in these analyses, leaving the direct relationship between innovation and stock return volatility untested. The paper investigates the relationship between volatility and innovation using firm level patent data. The analysis builds on the empirical work by Mazzucato (Rev Econ Dyn 5:318–345, 2002; J Evol Econ 13(5):491–512, 2003) where it is found that stock return volatility is highest during periods in the industry life-cycle when innovation is the most ‘radical’. In this paper we ask whether firms which invest more in innovation (more R&D and more patents) and/or which have more important innovations (patents with more citations) experience more volatility in their returns. Given that returns should in theory be higher, on average, for higher risk stocks, we also look at the effect of innovation on the level of returns. To take into account the competition between firms within industries, firm returns and volatility are measured relative to the industry average. We focus the analysis on firms in the pharmaceutical industry between 1974 and 1999. Results suggest that there is a positive and significant relationship between volatility, R&D intensity and the various patent related measures—especially when the innovation measures are filtered to distinguish the very innovative firms from the less innovate ones.     

Does intellectual monopoly stimulate or stifle innovation?

This study develops an R&D-based growth model with vertical and horizontal innovation to shed some light on the current debate on whether patent protection stimulates or stifles innovation. We analyze the effects of patent protection in the form of blocking patents. We show that patent protection changes the direction of innovation by having asymmetric effects on vertical innovation (i.e., quality improvement) and horizontal innovation (i.e., variety expansion). Calibrating the model and simulating transition dynamics, we find that strengthening the effect of blocking patents stifles vertical innovation and decreases economic growth but increases social welfare due to an increase in horizontal innovation. In light of this finding, we argue that in order to properly analyze the growth and welfare implications of patents, it is important to consider their often neglected compositional effects on vertical and horizontal innovation.     

Patent Protection,Innovation and Technology Licensing

We show that the common wisdom suggesting higher investment in innovation under a stronger patent protection may not be true if the innovator can license its technology ex‐post innovation. If the initial cost of production is high and the slope of the marginal cost of undertaking innovation is moderate, investment in innovation is maximised at a patent protection that is weaker than the strongest patent protection. Otherwise, strongest patent protection maximises investment in innovation. We also show that welfare is maximised neither at the strongest patent protection nor at the weakest patent protection but at an intermediate patent protection. Our results are important for patent policies.     

绿色创新与经济增长动态关系研究——基于VAR模型的实证分析

基于湖北省1993—2018年相关数据,运用VAR模型对绿色创新与经济增长的动态关系进行实证研究,同时将绿色创新分为发明专利授权和实用新型专利授权两个要素。研究发现,经济增长与发明专利授权、实用新型专利授权存在长期协整关系;发明专利授权对经济增长存在“扩散效应”,实用新型专利授权对经济增长先体现“扩散效应”,后体现“挤出效应”,而经济增长对两者均具有“扩散效应”;发明专利授权对经济增长的促进作用明显大于实用新型专利授权对经济增长的促进作用。因此,应积极构建绿色创新与经济增长的长效互动机制;加大绿色创新开发投入,完善绿色创新相关制度;提升绿色创新的投入效率,加速绿色创新成果转化率。     

The effect of new technology on energy consumption

This paper uses patent data to estimate the effect of new technologies on energy consumption. Matching energy patent counts to the industries using these patents, I create stocks of energy knowledge for 13 industries. Including the stocks in restricted variable cost functions, I estimate the median present value of long run savings from a new patent to be over US$ 14.5 million. Combining these results with estimates of price-induced innovation, I conclude that two-thirds of the change in energy consumption with respect to a price change is due to simple price-induced factor substitution, while the remaining third results from induced innovation.     

The patterns of patents in China

Innovations are a key driver of long-term economic growth. There has been an explosion of patent filings in China in the past three decades. But empirical studies on the pattern of innovations at the firm level are rather scant primarily due to lack of firm-specific patent data. We have made concerted efforts to match Chinese patent data with a large firm-level database. The matched dataset enables us to examine the patterns of patents at the firm level. Our analysis has revealed several interesting patterns: (1) domestic firms have become increasingly more innovative in terms of patent application; (2) private firms, rather than state-owned enterprises, have been the engine of innovation; (3) rising wages have propelled labor-intensive sectors to become more innovative; and (4) in response to increasing sex ratio imbalances, firms in female-intensive industries have exhibited more innovations than those in male-intensive industries.     

Employee relations and innovation: an empirical analysis using patent data

This paper investigates the relationship between employee relations (ER) as tracked in the environment, social, and governance (ESG) database provided by MSCI Inc., and innovation as measured by patents and patent citations. Some ER policies, such as broadly based profit-sharing plans, stock option plans, and stock ownership, create a direct link between a firm’s performance and employee compensation and might therefore be expected to encourage successful innovation. In addition, some other aspects of ER, including good pension plans, good union relations, and a variety of specific benefits (such as flex time) might improve innovation performance through their effect on employee morale or institutional loyalty, or simply by creating incentives to stay with the firm. We find that both of these categories of ER – financial incentives and non-pecuniary motivations – have a positive effect on innovation as measured by patenting and patent citations.     

Promoting innovation and competition with patent policy

Recently the role of institutions on growth, and especially the influence of Intellectual Property Rights, has been integrated into the Schumpeterian Growth Framework. In this contribution, we highlight the possibility using one patent’s characteristic, the patent height, as an instrument for promoting innovation and growth. We introduce this possibility into the Segerstrom (Am Econ Rev 80:1290–1310, 1998)/Li (Am Econ Rev 93:1009–1018, 2003) quality ladders model of growth. The Li (Am Econ Rev 93: 1009–1018, 2003) generalized model overturns Segerstrom (Am Econ Rev 80:1290–1310, 1998) policy implication in terms of the size of innovations having to be taxed or subsidized by relaxing a crucial assumption on the value of the elasticity of substitution between goods. In this paper, we point out the fact that the innovation size requirement has to be considered as a policy instrument, so that it appears extremely important to consider the case when the innovation size has been made endogenous. A patent policy using the novelty requirement as an instrument for innovation policy enables implementation of the social optimum. The consequences of this policy for market structure and economic growth are then discussed. When the level of the patent novelty requirement is initially high, a patent policy that weakens the patent height can reinforce competition and promote innovation.     

More is better: evidence that joint patenting leads to quality innovation

Joint ownership of a patent is most often viewed by firms as a second-best option compared to single, monopoly ownership. However, the results of this article suggest that there may be reason for businesses and policymakers to incentivize joint patenting behaviour. This is because, joint patent ownership is found to positively impact the quality of an innovation (as measured by forward patent citations). In addition, the degree of quality increases with the number of patent owners. Since past research confirms the important links between patent quality and ongoing innovation, and between innovation and growth, those factors that impact patent quality are deserving of attention. Economic research on joint patenting is currently limited, but we hope to shed light on the importance of expanding dialogue on this topic.     

基于产业集群生命周期理论的研究与探讨

对产业集群生命周期的正确认识与划分在区域产业集群的持续发展中有着重要的意义。本文首先对产业集群的概念及产业集群生命周期的理论进行了系统的回顾，接着重点对其相关研究成果进行了归纳，主要从产业集群发展动力与演进路径进行了阐述，最后提出了有待深入的相关研究与展望。     

Patent protection, capital accumulation, and economic growth

In this paper, we investigate how strengthening patent protection affects economic growth in an endogenous growth model where both innovation and capital accumulation are the driving forces of economic growth. In this model, stronger patent protection raises the profit flow obtained by innovation but reduces the factor demand for capital. This process accelerates innovation but discourages capital accumulation, and because of the negative effect on economic growth through reducing capital accumulation, strengthening patent protection may then impede economic growth. This result contrasts with earlier studies where innovation is the sole driving force for economic growth. Moreover, in an open economy model where technologies are transferred and capital is imported from abroad, the strictest protection of patents enhances technology adoption from abroad but impedes capital accumulation, and thus, the relation derived between patent protection and output can be nonmonotone. In terms of implications, these findings may be able to partly explain the complex relation found by some empirical studies in this area.     

用能技术还是管理技术？——绿色技术创新发生环节和类型的抉择

为厘清环境规制对企业绿色技术创新的影响及其机理，本文从企业绿色技术创新发生的环节和类型的视角切入，将企业绿色技术创新分为用能技术创新和管理技术创新两大类及其下设的七小类，并将之在生产链环节（源头、过程和末端）上加以归类，通过匹配沪深A股上市公司、《中国环境统计年鉴》和《中国工业经济统计年鉴》获取了关于环境规制和企业绿色技术创新的指标，研究了环境规制约束下企业技术绿色创新的抉择，结果发现：第一，环境规制整体上未对企业绿色技术创新有明显促进作用，“创新补偿”效应难以成立；第二，其内驱因素是，环境规制显著降低了企业生产率和收益率；第三，其外部原因是，与低污染行业企业相比，环境规制对高污染行业企业的绿色技术创新有一定促进作用，体现在用能技术创新、管理技术创新两方面，并分布在生产链的源头、过程及末端三个环节；第四，其外部原因还包括环境规制作用的阶段性，环境规制对个别绿色技术创新指标造成了先促进后抑制的影响，也影响了“创新补偿”效应的成立。据此，本文对环境规制约束下企业绿色技术创新的激励和选择提供一定启示。