Determinants of foreign technological activity in German regions - a count model analysis of transnational patents (1996-2009)

Eva Dettmann, Iciar Dominguez Lacasa, Jutta Guenther () and Bjoern Jindra ()
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Jutta Guenther: Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), Department of Structural Change, Kleine Markerstrasse 8, 06108, Halle (Saale), Germany and Friedrich Schiller University Jena Faculty of Economics, Carl-Zeiss-Str. 3, 07743 Jena, Germany
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Jutta Günther ()

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: This paper analyses the determinants of spatial distribution of foreign technological activity across 96 German regions (1996-2009). We identify foreign inventive activity by applying the ‘cross-border-ownership concept’ to transnational patent applications. The descriptive analysis shows that foreign technological activity more than doubled during the observation period with persistent spatial heterogeneity in Germany. Using a pooled count data model, we estimate the effect of various sources for externalities on the extent of foreign technological activity across regions. Our results show that foreign technological activity is attracted by technologically specialised sectors of regions. In contrast to existing findings this effect applies both to foreign as well as domestic sources of specialisation. We show that the relation between specialization and foreign technological activity is non-linear and that it is influenced by sectoral heterogeneity. Externalities related to technological diversification attract foreign R&D only into ‘higher order’ regions.

Keywords: foreign direct investment; technology; Europe; patent information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O32 O33 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-sbm and nep-ure
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Published in WP BRP Series: Science, Technology and Innovation / STI, September 2013, pages 1-33

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Working Paper: Determinants of Foreign Technological Activity in German Regions – A Count Model Analysis of Transnational Patents (1996-2009) (2013)
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