Did R&D Firms Used to Patent? Evidence from the First Innovation Surveys

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050711002233
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 1032-1059
• 关键词: intellectual property-rights; secrecy; LESSONS; MARKET; IMPACT

摘要

Matching 2,777 R&D firms in surveys conducted by the National Research Council between 1921 and 1938 with U.S. patents reveals that 59 percent of all firms and 88 percent of publicly traded firms patented. These shares are much higher than those observed for modern R&D firms. Industry, firm size and the location of R&D facilities relative to major cities are shown to be important determinants of the propensity to patent. The effect of these factors remained constant across the 1920s and the Depression years suggesting that the tradeoff between patent disclosure and secrecy did not change over time.