Econometric Evidence on the R&D Depreciation Rate

Gaétan de Rassenfosse and Adam Jaffe

No 23072, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper presents estimates of the R&D depreciation rate using survey data on Australian inventions. Its novelty is twofold. First, it relies on direct observation of the revenue streams of inventions. This is in sharp contrast with previous studies, which all rely on models based on indirect observation and require strong identifying assumptions. Second, it presents estimates of the effect of patent protection on the depreciation rate. Results suggest that the yearly depreciation rate varies in a range of 1 to 5 per cent, although the depreciation rate is stronger in the first two years of inventions averaging 8–9 per cent. Patent protection slows down the erosion of profits by about 1–2 percentage points.

JEL-codes: M41 O32 O33 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-sbm and nep-tid
Note: PR
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23072.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23072

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23072

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().