Patent Law and Innovation in Europe during the Industrial Revolution

Donges Alexander () and Selgert Felix ()
Additional contact information
Donges Alexander: Universität Mannheim, Abteilung Volkswirtschaftslehre, L7, 3-5. D-68131 Mannheim, Germany
Selgert Felix: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Abt. Verfassungs-, Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Konviktstraße 11, D-53113 Bonn, Germany

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, 2019, vol. 60, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Human capital, access to markets, and innovation-friendly institutions were important preconditions for the acceleration of technological change during the industrial revolution. In this context, the recent literature discusses the role of patents. Given their dual nature, patents may have either stimulated innovation through the creation of financial incentives for inventors or they may have hampered innovation, because they created monopolies that restricted the free flow of knowledge. For this reason, the overall effects of patents on innovation and, eventually, long-run economic growth are not clear. In order to develop a better understanding of the determinants of innovation, this special issue of the Economic History Yearbook therefore focuses on the causes and consequences of patent laws and patent law reforms in the nineteenth and early twentieth century in different European countries.

Keywords: Innovation; Intellectual Property; Patents; Patent Law; Technological Change; Innovation; geistiges Eigentum; Patente; Patentrecht; technologischer Wandel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K N O (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbwg-2019-0001 (text/html)

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:bpj:jbwige:v:60:y:2019:i:1:p:1-8:n:1

DOI: 10.1515/jbwg-2019-0001

Access Statistics for this article

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook is currently edited by Dieter Ziegler

More articles in Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().