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Racing against Time in Research: A Study of the 1995 U.S. Patent Law Amendment

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  • Kim, Jinyoung

    (Korea University)

Abstract

Teamwork in research has been on the rise and so has the size of R&D teams. This paper offers an explanation for increasing team size that we call the "racing against time" hypothesis: With innovation races more competitive globally, R&D firms need to finish research projects as quickly as possible and therefore have an incentive to put together a team with more R&D personnel. We test this hypothesis against a natural experiment that took place in 1995 when the U.S. patent law was amended.

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  • Kim, Jinyoung, 2017. "Racing against Time in Research: A Study of the 1995 U.S. Patent Law Amendment," IZA Discussion Papers 10815, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10815
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    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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