Disclosure and Subsequent Innovation: Evidence from the Patent Depository Library Program

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Furman, Jeffrey L.; Nagler, Markus; Watzinger, Martin
• 署名单位: Boston University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Erlangen Nuremberg; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Munster; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180636
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 239-270
• 关键词: research-and-development; shoulders; giants

摘要

How important is access to patent documents for subsequent inno-vation? We examine the expansion of the USPTO Patent Library sys-tem after 1975. Patent libraries provided access to patents before the Internet. We find that after patent library opening, local patenting increases by 8-20 percent relative to similar regions. Additional anal-yses suggest that disclosure of technical information drives this effect: inventors increasingly take up ideas from outside their region, and the effect is strongest in technologies where patents are more informative. We thus provide evidence that disclosure plays an important role in cumulative innovation.