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Isolating Personal Knowledge Spillovers: Coinventor Deaths and Spatial Citation Differentials

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  • Benjamin Balsmeier
  • Lee Fleming
  • Sonja Lück

Abstract

We propose a new method to estimate and isolate the localization of knowledge spillovers due to the physical presence of a person, using after-application but pre-grant deaths of differently located coinventors of the same patent. The approach estimates the differences in local citations between the deceased and still-living inventors at increasingly distant radii. Patents receive 26 percent fewer citations from within a radius of 20 miles around the deceased, relative to still-living coinventors. Differences attenuate with time and distance, are stronger when still-living coinventors live farther from the deceased, and hold for a subsample of possibly premature deaths.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Balsmeier & Lee Fleming & Sonja Lück, 2023. "Isolating Personal Knowledge Spillovers: Coinventor Deaths and Spatial Citation Differentials," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 21-34, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aerins:v:5:y:2023:i:1:p:21-34
    DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20210275
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis

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