We provide evidence that over the past 30 years, U.S. firms have expanded their scope of operations. Increases in scope and scale were achieved largely without increasing traditional operating segments. Scope expansion significantly increases valuation and is primarily realized through...

To encourage invention, society awards inventors exclusive rights through patents. Patent law trades off incentives to invent new technologies against reduced access to already invented technology. However, patent law being national, it is difficult to investigate the trade off without confound...

How do firms and inventors move through knowledge space as they develop their innovations? We propose a method for tracking patterns of exploration and exploitation in patenting behaviour in the US for the period since 1920. Our exploration measure is constructed from the text of patents and...

Given the scarcity of innovation measurements at the state level, we propose an innovation index. To test if the proposed index is a good measure of innovation, we studied its relationship with economic growth across the United States. Results are qualitatively consistent with the literature in...

We document the occurrence of process claims in granted U.S. patents over the last century. Using novel data on the type of independent patent claims, we show an increase in the annual share of process claims of about 25 percentage points (from below 10% in 1920). This rise in process intensity...

This paper investigates whether, in what direction, and to what extent one mode of technology transfer is influenced by the strength of intellectual property protection that host nations provide. Using data spanning the period 1977-1999, we find little support for the claim that strengthening...

In this ex-post analysis, we have used three large pharmaceutical merger cases to examine the correctness of the market definition carried out by the FTC and the European Commission with regard to innovation competition. In doing so, we selected three merger cases that were reviewed by both...

Economists have long struggled to understand why aggregate TFP growth has dropped in recent decades while the number of new patents filed has steadily increased. I offer an explanation for this puzzling divergence: the creativity embodied in US patents has dropped dramatically over time. To...

Underrepresentation of minority and poor households in scientific studies undermines policy decisions and public health. We study data from a serological study that randomized participation incentives. Participation is low (6% at $0, 17% at $100, 29% at $500) and unequal: minority and poor...

This chapter reviews the data and literature on gender, race and ethnicity differences in research funding in the United States and Europe. The gender gap in research funding has closed at the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health in the United States and substantially...