Foreign Patenting in Germany, 1877-1932

URL:	http://opus.ub.uni-hohenheim.de/volltexte/2010/507...
Weitere URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1694400
URN:	urn:nbn:de:bsz:100-opus-5078
Dokumenttyp:	Arbeitspapier
Erscheinungsjahr:	2010
Titel einer Zeitschrift oder einer Reihe:	FZID Discussion Papers
Band/Volume:	21
Ort der Veröffentlichung:	Stuttgart
Verlag:	Univ. Hohenheim, Forschungszentrum Innovation und Dienstleistung
ISSN:	1867-934X , 1868-0720
Sprache der Veröffentlichung:	Englisch
Einrichtung:	Fakultät für Rechtswissenschaft und Volkswirtschaftslehre > Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Streb 2011-)
Fachgebiet:	330 Wirtschaft 900 Geschichte
Abstract:	In this paper, we use both patents’ individual life span and foreign patenting activities in Germany to identify the most valuable patents of the 21 most innovative countries (except for Germany) from the European Core, the European periphery and overseas between 1877 and 1932. Our empirical analysis reveals that important characteristics of the international distribution of foreign patents are time-invariant. In particular, the distribution of foreign patents across countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was as highly skewed as it was in the late twentieth century – and even dominated by the same major research economies. Our analysis suggests that firms’ technological advantages were influenced both by exogenous local factors, such as the countries’ resource endowment, and by endogenous factors, such as the national education and research system or the countries’ actual stage of economic development.