COVID-19 Shifted Patent Applications Toward Technologies that Support Working from Home

Nicholas Bloom, Steven Davis and Yulia Zhestkova (yzhestkova@uchicago.edu)
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Yulia Zhestkova: University of Chicago - Department of Economics

No 2020-133, Working Papers from Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics

Abstract: We examine the text content of U.S. patent applications, identifying those that advance technologies in support of video conferencing, telecommuting, remote interactivity, and working from home (collectively, WFH). The share of new patent applications that advance WFH technologies more than doubles from January to September of 2020, greatly surpassing its previous peak, and following an upward trajectory since the onset of the pandemic. This evidence suggests that (re-)directed technical change in reaction to COVID-19 will raise the quality and efficiency of remote work, thereby reinforcing a shift to working from home even after the pandemic ends.

Keywords: Directed technical change; patents; COVID-19; coronavirus; working from home; remote interactivity; text analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 8 pages
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ipr and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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https://repec.bfi.uchicago.edu/RePEc/pdfs/BFI_WP_2020133.pdf (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: COVID-19 Shifted Patent Applications toward Technologies That Support Working from Home (2021)
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