Innovation and technological change, long recognized as the main driversof long-term economic growth, are elusive notions that are difficult toconceptualize and even harder to measure in a consistent, systematic way. This bookdemonstrates the usefulness of patents and citations data as a window on the processof technological change and as a powerful tool for research on the economics ofinnovation. Patent records contain a wealth of information, including the inventors'identity, location, and employer, as well as the technological field of theinvention. Patents also contain citation references to previous patents, which allowone to trace links across inventions.The book lays out the conceptual foundationsfor such research and provides a range of interesting applications, such asexamining the geographic pattern of knowledge spillovers and evaluating the impactof university and government patenting. It also describes statistical tools designedto handle methodological problems raised by the patent and citation processes. Thebook includes a CD with complete data on 3 million patents with more than 16 millioncitations and a range of author-devised measures of the importance, generality, andoriginality of patented innovations.
- ISBN10 0585442827
- ISBN13 9780585442822
- Publish Date December 2002
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint MIT Press Ltd
- Format eBook
- Language English