A history of collaboration in US invention: changing patterns of co-invention, complexity and geography

Frank van der Wouden

Industrial and Corporate Change, 2020, vol. 29, issue 3, 599-619

Abstract: Research suggests that increasing collaboration in knowledge production is explained by rising complexity of knowledge. Yet, there is little long-run, systematic, empirical evidence on the relationship between complexity and collaboration. A new database is introduced that identifies all (co-)inventors on more than 3 million US patents between 1836 and 1975. Empirical analysis reveals (i) collaboration on US patents began to increase in the 1940s; (ii) there is a robust positive relationship between complexity and collaboration; and (iii) increasing complexity is associated with local rather than nonlocal collaboration.

JEL-codes: N9 O1 O3 R1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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