Disclosure and subsequent innovation: evidence from the patent depository library program
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Published version
Date
2021-11-01
Authors
Furman, Jeffrey L.
Nagler, Markus
Watzinger, Martin
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
J.L. Furman, M. Nagler, M. Watzinger. 2021. "Disclosure and Subsequent Innovation: Evidence from the Patent Depository Library Program." AEJ-Economic Policy, Volume 13, Issue 4, pp. 239 - 270. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20180636
Abstract
How important is access to patent documents for subsequent innovation? We examine the expansion of the USPTO Patent Library system after 1975. Patent libraries provided access to patents before the Internet. We find that after patent library opening, local patenting increases by 8–20 percent relative to similar regions. Additional analyses suggest that disclosure of technical information drives this effect: inventors increasingly take up ideas from outside their region, and the effect is strongest in technologies where patents are more informative. We thus provide evidence that disclosure plays an important role in cumulative innovation.