Publications
Publications
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(1,419)
- Faculty Publications (437)
- May 2009
- Article
The Empirical Impact of Intellectual Property Rights on Innovation: Puzzles and Clues
By: Josh Lerner
Economists have long seen the patent system as a crucial lever through which policymakers affect the speed and nature of innovation in the economy. It is not surprising, then, that the profound changes which have roiled the global patent system over the past 20 years... View Details
- March 2009
- Article
Applicant and Examiner Citations in U.S. Patents: An Overview and Analysis
By: Juan Alcacer, Michelle Gittelman and Bhaven Sampat
Prior art patent citations have become a popular measure of patent quality and knowledge flow between firms. Interpreting these measurements is complicated, in some cases, because prior art citations are added by patent examiners as well as by patent applicants. The... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised October 2012)
- Case
Tata Motors in Singur: Public Purpose and Private Property (B)
By: Laura Alfaro, Lakshmi Iyer and Namrata Arora
In October 2008, Tata Motors canceled their car manufacturing plant in West Bengal state, in the face of widespread farmer protests over land acquisition issues. This meant abandoning a project in which the company had invested $300 million and delaying the launch of... View Details
- January 2009
- Article
Spatial Diversity in Invention: Evidence from the Early R&D Labs
By: Tom Nicholas
This article uses historical data on inventor and firm R&D lab locations to examine the technological and geographic structure of corporate knowledge capital accumulation during a formative period in the organization of US innovation. Despite the localization of... View Details
- December 2008 (Revised October 2012)
- Case
Special Economic Zones in India: Public Purpose and Private Property (A)
By: Laura Alfaro and Lakshmi Iyer
In 2005, the government of India enacted the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act in order to attract investment, generate export revenues, and create manufacturing jobs. However, several planned projects faced difficulties in acquiring land for setting up the SEZ. In... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention
By: William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln
This study evaluates the impact of high-skilled immigrants on US technology formation. Specifically, we use reduced-form specifications that exploit large changes in the H-1B visa program. Fluctuations in H-1B admissions levels significantly influence the rate of... View Details
- September 2008
- Article
Does Innovation Cause Stock Market Runups? Evidence from the Great Crash
By: Tom Nicholas
This article examines the stock market's changing valuation of corporate patentable assets between 1910 and 1939. It shows that the value of knowledge capital increased significantly during the 1920s compared to the 1910s as investors responded to the quality of... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Applicant and Examiner Citations in U.S. Patents: An Overview and Analysis
By: Juan Alcacer, Michelle Gittelman and Bhaven Sampat
Researchers studying innovation increasingly use indicators based on patent citations. However, it is well known that not all citations originate from applicants—patent examiners contribute to citations listed in issued patents—and that this could complicate... View Details
- August 2008
- Article
Ethnic Scientific Communities and International Technology Diffusion
By: William R. Kerr
This study explores the importance of knowledge transfer for international technology diffusion by examining ethnic scientific and entrepreneurial communities in the US and their ties to their home countries. US ethnic research communities are quantified by applying an... View Details
- July 2008 (Revised April 2009)
- Background Note
Horizontal Specialization and Modularity in the Semiconductor Industry
By: Willy C. Shih, Chintay Shih and Chen-Fu Chien
Well-codified interfaces have enabled horizontal specialization in the global semiconductor industry. This Technical Note describes the modern integrated circuit value chain, and the motivation for the reuse of blocks of intellectual property in modern IC designs. It... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
The Agglomeration of U.S. Ethnic Inventors
By: William R. Kerr
The ethnic composition of US inventors is undergoing a significant transformation—with deep impacts for the overall agglomeration of US innovation. This study applies an ethnic-name database to individual US patent records to explore these trends with greater detail.... View Details
- April 2008 (Revised August 2008)
- Supplement
AT&T v. Microsoft (B): District Court Ruling and Appeal
By: Willy C. Shih
The (B) case follows the course of Microsoft's settlement with AT&T, and its appeal in the issue of foreign replicated software that eventually goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is intended for follow-up the discussion of the (A) case with what happened, examining a... View Details
- April 2008
- Article
The Survey of Industrial R&D—Patent Database Link Project
By: William R. Kerr and Shihe Fu
This paper details the construction of a firm-year panel dataset combining the NBER Patent Dataset with the Survey of Industrial R&D conducted by the Census Bureau and National Science Foundation. The dataset constitutes a platform that offers an unprecedented view of... View Details
- Article
Czech Mate: Expropriation and Investor Protection in a Converging World
By: Mihir A. Desai and Alberto Moel
This paper examines the expropriation of a foreign investor by a local partner and the subsequent resolution of that case through international arbitration in favor of the investor. Despite the investor's 99% interest in joint venture, the local partner managed to... View Details
- February 2008
- Article
Attracting Skeptical Buyers: Negotiating for Intellectual Property Rights
By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao
Expropriable disclosures of knowledge to prospective buyers may be necessary to facilitate the sale of intellectual property (IP). In principle, confidentiality agreements can protect disclosures by granting the seller rights to sue for unauthorized use. In practice,... View Details
- February 2008 (Revised May 2011)
- Case
The Travails of Rubber: Goodyear or Badyear?
By: Tom Nicholas and Andrew Ferguson
Explores the reason why Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber vulcanization, was unable to profit from his discovery despite securing international property rights over his invention through a patent in 1844. Considers the utility of patents as an incentive for... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised August 2008)
- Case
AT&T v. Microsoft (A): IP Litigation Strategy
By: Willy Shih
This case examines a hard fought litigation over a patent that originated at Bell Labs. It illustrates the challenges that technology companies face today innovating in a complex intellectual property environment in fields where there is a high amount of... View Details
- January 2008
- Article
Mastering the Management System
By: Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
Companies have always found it hard to balance pressing operational concerns with long-term strategic priorities. The tension is critical: World-class processes won't lead to success without the right strategic direction, and the best strategy in the world will get... View Details
- December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
- Case
Alltech...naturally
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
Entrepreneur Pearse Lyons had built Alltech into the fastest growing company in the global animal health industry through innovative technology, creative marketing, and strong branding. Sel-Plex, a proprietary Alltech product, had shown important health benefits for... View Details
- 30 Nov 2007
- Conference Presentation
The Ethnic Composition of US Inventors: Evidence Building from Ethnic Names in US Patents
By: William R. Kerr