The 'Inventor Balance' and the Functional Specialization in Global Inventive Activities

Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Forthcoming

48 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2017

See all articles by Lucio Picci

Lucio Picci

University of Bologna - Department of Economics; Institute for Corruption Studies

Luca Savorelli

University of Bologna - Department of Economics

Date Written: January 31, 2017

Abstract

Inventors and organizational assets are inputs of inventive activities which are often provided at a global scale, where countries might specialize in the provision of one or the other type of inputs. We introduce a new patent-based metric, the “inventor balance”, to quantify this type of functional specialization, which we discover to be considerable, and we propose a conceptual framework to explain it. We observe a progressive “decoupling” of national sub-systems providing respectively inventors and organizational assets. Moreover, we find that countries with a high level of innovativeness relative to their economic development, high technological specialization, and strong individualistic cultural traits, contribute relatively more inventors than organizations to the global production of inventions.

Keywords: Patents, Inventor balance, Inventor criterion, Applicant criterion, Internationalization of R&D, Specialization, Technology gaps

JEL Classification: O31, O34, F21, F23, F29

Suggested Citation

Picci, Lucio and Savorelli, Luca, The 'Inventor Balance' and the Functional Specialization in Global Inventive Activities (January 31, 2017). Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2908726

Lucio Picci (Contact Author)

University of Bologna - Department of Economics ( email )

Strada Maggiore 45
Bologna, 40125
Italy

Institute for Corruption Studies

Stevenson Hall 425
Normal, IL 61790-4200
United States

Luca Savorelli

University of Bologna - Department of Economics ( email )

Strada Maggiore 45
Bologna, 40125
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://savorelli.weebly.com

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