Publications

15 May 2020
News

Innovation Can’t Be Forced, but It Can Be Quashed

Awards

Selected as one of the best Business and Economics Books of the Year

By: Josh Lerner

Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System Is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What To Do About It (Princeton University Press, 2004), with Adam Jaffe, was selected by The Economist as one of the Best Business and Economics Books... View Details

11 Nov 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Public R&D Investments and Private-sector Patenting: Evidence from NIH Funding Rules

Keywords: by Danielle Li; Health; Biotechnology; Pharmaceutical; Medical Devices & Supplies

18 Jul 2019
News

U.S. Targeting of Chinese Scientists Fuels a Brain Drain

2017
Working Paper

The Rise of American Ingenuity: Innovation and Inventors of the Golden Age

By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby and Tom Nicholas

We examine the golden age of U.S. innovation by undertaking a major data collection exercise linking inventors from historical U.S. patents to Federal Censuses between 1880 and 1940 and to regional economic aggregates. We provide a theoretical framework to motivate the... View Details

Keywords: Economic Development; Patents; Economic Growth; Innovation and Invention; Demographics

2010
Working Paper

Growth through Heterogeneous Innovations

By: Ufuk Akcigit and William R. Kerr

We study how exploration versus exploitation innovations impact economic growth through a tractable endogenous growth framework that contains multiple innovation sizes, multi-product firms, and entry/exit. Firms invest in exploration R&D to acquire new product lines... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economic Growth; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Size; Research and Development; United States

November 1978 (Revised October 1989)
Case

Amicon Corp. (A)

Amicon holds a patent on a new process for the separation of blood plasma from whole blood. It has to decide whether to pursue a direct entry, joint venture, or licensing strategy. If it chooses licensing, there are many sub-issues to consider. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Patents; Commercialization; Health Care and Treatment; Biotechnology Industry

08 Jan 2020
Video

Dr. Yusuf Hamied

Dr. Yusuf Hamied, Chair of the pioneering Indian generic drugs company Cipla, explains his objection to the patent monopolies of Western multinational companies, to whom he believes India should not be at the... 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

Keywords: Information Technology; Geographic Location; Patents; Ethnicity; City; Innovation and Invention; United States

SSRN

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

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Patents; Surveys; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; Projects; Management Practices and Processes; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

26 Sep 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Technological Leadership (de)Concentration: Causes in ICTE

Keywords: by Yasin Ozcan and Shane Greenstein; Telecommunications

31 Jul 2018
Working Paper Summaries

How Does Product Liability Risk Affect Innovation? Evidence from Medical Implants

Keywords: by Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

Agglomeration of Invention in the Bay Area: Not Just ICT

Does invention agglomerate, and if so, where does it agglomerate? In this paper we examine changes in patterns of agglomeration in invention over time, using data on patent applications from all granted US patents. View Details

10 May 2016
First Look

May 10, 2016

build a literature more effectively than they could with less diverse approaches to gathering data. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51015 April 29, 2016 Science The Growing Problem of Patent Trolling By:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

May 2017
Article

Immigration and the Rise of American Ingenuity

By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby and Tom Nicholas

We build on the analysis in Akcigit, Grigsby, and Nicholas (2017) by using U.S. patent and census data to examine the relationship between immigration and innovation. We construct a measure of foreign born expertise and show that technology areas where immigrant... View Details

Keywords: Immigration; Innovation and Invention; Experience and Expertise; Wages; United States

Find at Harvard

January 1994 (Revised November 1997)
Case

Aberlyn Capital Management: July 1993

By: Josh Lerner and Peter Tufano

Aberlyn Capital Management, a venture leasing firm specializing in providing capital to biotechnology firms, proposes to introduce a new product. Aberlyn will base a lease on an intangible product: the patent of a biotechnology firm. This poses a series of short and... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Valuation; Product Launch; Problems and Challenges; Patents; Financial Instruments; Financial Services Industry; Biotechnology Industry

21 Mar 2018
News

Why Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Sure Thing to Increase Productivity

May 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Performance Indicator

Performance Indicator is a start-up that holds patents on the use of color-change technology to indicate when golf balls have been damaged by exposure to water. Because golfers put two to five used golf balls into play for every one new ball they buy, the used golf... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Patents; Entrepreneurship; Sports; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry