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Stars and Comets: An Exploration of the Patent Universe

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  • Carlo Menon

Abstract

The analysis of patent and citation data has become a popular source of evidence on localizedknowledge spillovers and innovation. Nevertheless, an aspect has been overlooked: the patentdistribution across inventors is extremely skewed, as many inventors register one or a fewpatents, while a small number of inventors register many patents. To our knowledge, theprevious empirical literature has not discussed the different kinds of local innovation fromwhich patents may originate. A first contribution of this paper is therefore to document theissue. A second contribution is to investigate whether patents originating from differentscales of innovation are located in different cities. A third contribution - which constitutes themain scope of the paper - is to test whether the concentration of the activity of star inventorsis beneficial to the local productivity of other kinds of innovation - namely the ones led bymore occasional, and less prolific, inventors.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Menon, 2009. "Stars and Comets: An Exploration of the Patent Universe," SERC Discussion Papers 0037, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:sercdp:0037
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Paul Almeida & Bruce Kogut, 1999. "Localization of Knowledge and the Mobility of Engineers in Regional Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(7), pages 905-917, July.
    2. Michael Greenstone & Richard Hornbeck & Enrico Moretti, 2008. "Identifying Agglomeration Spillovers: Evidence from Million Dollar Plants," Working Paper series 36_08, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    3. Silverberg, Gerald & Verspagen, Bart, 2007. "The size distribution of innovations revisited: An application of extreme value statistics to citation and value measures of patent significance," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 318-339, August.
    4. Natarajan Balasubramanian & Jagadeesh Sivadasan, 2011. "What Happens When Firms Patent? New Evidence from U.S. Economic Census Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 126-146, February.
    5. Giovanni Peri, 2005. "Determinants of Knowledge Flows and Their Effect on Innovation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 308-322, May.
    6. Rachel Griffith & Sokbae Lee & John Van Reenen, 2008. "Is Distance Dying at Last?," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 240, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. repec:rim:rimwps:36-08 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Alessandra Scandura, 2013. "The role of scientific and market knowledge in the inventive process: evidence from a survey of industrial inventors," ERSA conference papers ersa13p128, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    3. Martin Kalthaus, 2020. "Knowledge recombination along the technology life cycle," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 643-704, July.
    4. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    5. Megha Mukim, 2012. "Does Agglomeration Boost Innovation? An Econometric Evaluation," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 357-380, September.
    6. repec:bof:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Max Nathan, 2011. "Ethnic Inventors, Diversity and Innovation in the UK: Evidence from Patents Microdata," SERC Discussion Papers 0092, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Hohberger, Jan, 2016. "Does it pay to stand on the shoulders of giants? An analysis of the inventions of star inventors in the biotechnology sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 682-698.
    9. Alessandra Scandura, 2019. "The role of scientific and market knowledge in the inventive process: evidence from a survey of industrial inventors," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 1029-1069, August.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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