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How Do Patent Laws Influence Innovation? Evidence from Nineteenth-Century World's Fairs

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Petra Moser

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Abstract

Studies of innovation have focused on the effects of patent laws on the number of innovations, but have ignored effects on the direction of technological change. This paper introduces a new dataset of close to fifteen thousand innovations at the Crystal Palace World's Fair in 1851 and at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 to examine the effects of patent laws on the direction of innovation. The paper tests the following argument: if innovative activity is motivated by expected profits, and if the effectiveness of patent protection varies across industries, then innovation in countries without patent laws should focus on industries where alternative mechanisms to protect intellectual property are effective. Analyses of exhibition data for 12 countries in 1851 and 10 countries in 1876 indicate that inventors in countries without patent laws focused on a small set of industries where patents were less important, while innovation in countries with patent laws appears to be much more diversified. These findings suggest that patents help to determine the direction of technical change and that the adoption of patent laws in countries without such laws may alter existing patterns of comparative advantage across countries.

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Article provided by American Economic Association in its journal American Economic Review.

Volume (Year): 95 (2005)
Issue (Month): 4 (September)
Pages: 1214-1236
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Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:95:y:2005:i:4:p:1214-1236

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Paul Duguid & Teresa da Silva Lopes & John Mercer, 2008. "Shifting Patterns in Marks and Registration: France, the United States and United Kingdom, 1870-1970," Working Papers 21, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research. [Downloadable!]
  2. David, Thomas & Mach, Andre, 2006. "Institutions and Economic Growth: The Successful Experience of Switzerland (1870-1950)," Working Papers RP2006/101, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  3. Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo & Corrado Pasquali, 2006. "How Much Should Society Fuel the Greed of Innovators? On the Relations between Appropriability, Opportunities and Rates of Innovation," LEM Papers Series 2006/17, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Shih-Tse Lo, 2004. "Strenghtening Intellectual Property rights: Experience from the 1986 Taiwanese Patent Reforms," Working Papers 04004, Concordia University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Alessandro Nuvolari & Valentina Tartari, 2009. "Mr. Woodcroft and the Value of English Patents, 1617-1841," LEM Papers Series 2009/03, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Young-Ro Yoon, 2007. "Endogenous Timing of Actions under Conflict between Two Types of Second Mover Advantage," Caepr Working Papers 2007-013, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Economics Department, Indiana University Bloomington. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Jesper Lindgaard Christensen, 2008. "The IPR System, Venture Capital and Capital Markets – Contributions and Distortions of Small Firm Innovation?," DRUID Working Papers 08-03, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies. [Downloadable!]
  10. Sebastian von Engelhardt & Sushmita Swaminathan, 2008. "Open Source Software, Closed Source Software or Both: Impacts on Industry Growth and the Role of Intellectual Property Rights," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 799, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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