How Do Patents Affect Research Investments?

Heidi Williams ()

Annual Review of Economics, 2017, vol. 9, issue 1, 441-469

Abstract: Although patent systems have been widely used both historically and internationally, there is nonetheless a tremendous amount of controversy over whether patent systems, in practice, improve the alignment between private returns and social contributions. In this article, I describe three parameters—how the disclosure function affects research investments, how patent strength affects research investments in new technologies, and how patents on existing technologies affect follow-on innovation—needed to inform the question of how patents affect research investments, and review the available evidence that has attempted to empirically estimate these parameters.

Keywords: patents; innovation; research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

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