Prof. Bronwyn H. Hall, Ph.D.

Artikel in referierten Fachzeitschriften

Amoroso, Sara; Diodato, Dario; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Moncada-Paterno-Castello, Pietro (2023). Technological Relatedness and Industrial Transformation: Introduction to the Special Issue, The Journal of Technology Transfer, 48 (2), 469-475. DOI

• This article introduces eleven research articles that connect concepts of technological relatedness and diffusion with the transformation of industrial and innovation systems. These studies focus on the role of knowledge spillovers, regional variations in innovation and performance, and the evolution of new technologies, such as green and digital technologies. Regional capabilities and ability to diversify are key in accelerating the transformation process of existing industries.
  
  Taken all together, these studies suggest that industrial transformation hinge on firms capability to absorb domestic or foreign knowledge, regions capabilities, development trajectories, and their ability to network. In particular, regions capacity to diversify and leverage existing related knowledge are key in accelerating the green and digital transformation process of existing industries.

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2022). Innovation, and Development, SOAS Penrose Lectures, International Review of Applied Economics, 36, 1-, 36. DOI

• I survey some recent research on the role of patents in encouraging innovation and growth in developing economies, beginning with a brief history of international patent systems and facts about the current use of patents around the world. I discuss research on the implications of patents for international technology transfer and domestic innovation. This is followed by a review of recent work by myself and co-authors on regional patent systems, the impact of patents on firm performance, and the impact on pharmaceutical patenting and domestic innovation. The conclusion suggests that patents may be relatively unimportant in development, even for middle income countries.
• Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 20-07
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper No. 27203

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian; von Graevenitz, Georg (2021). Technology Entry in the Presence of Patent Thickets, Oxford Economic Papers, 73 (2), 903-926. DOI

• We analyse how patent thickets affect entry into patenting. A model of entry into patenting that allows for variation in technological opportunity, technological complexity and the extent of patent thickets is developed and analysed. Using UK data we then show that patent thickets are associated with a reduction of first time patenting in a technology controlling for the level of technological complexity and opportunity. Technologies characterized by more technological complexity and opportunity attract more entry into patenting. Our evidence indicates that patent thickets raise entry costs, which leads to less entry into technologies regardless of a firm’s size.
• Also published as: Working Paper 21455 in the NBER Working Paper Series

Fink, Carsten; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2021). Intellectual Property Use and Firm Performance: The Case of Chile, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 70 (1), 321-357. DOI

• We analyze the use of intellectual property (IP) by firms in Chile over the decade 1995-2005 as this middle-income country experienced rapid economic growth. Using firm-level information from the manufacturing census merged with firms' patent and trademark filings with the Chilenian IP office, we look how IP use by companies has changed over time and analyse the deteminants of and outcomes from their use, in particular first-time use. We find that firm growth prompts first-time use of IP, though such use does not change the growth trajectory of firms nor does it improve their total factor productivity.
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper No. w24348
• Also published as: Economic Research Working Paper No. 43 of the World Intellectual Property Organization

Gaessler, Fabian; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar (2021). Should There Be Lower Taxes on Patent Income?, Research Policy 50. DOI

• A “patent box” is a term for the application of a lower corporate tax rate to the income derived from the ownership of patents. This tax subsidy instrument has been introduced in a number of countries since 2000. Using comprehensive data on patents filed at the European Patent Office, including information on ownership transfers pre- and post-grant, we investigate the impact of the introduction of a patent box on international patent transfers, on the choice of ownership location, and on innovative activity in the relevant country. We find that the impact on transfers is small but present, especially when the tax instrument does not contain a development condition and for high value patents (those most likely to have generated income), but that innovation as proxied by R&D and patents is not affected. We also find that introducing a patent box reduces patent transfers out of the country. These results call into question whether the patent box is an effective instrument for encouraging innovation in a country, rather than simply preventing or facilitating the shifting of corporate income to low tax jurisdictions.
• Also published as Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 18-18

Li, Wendy C.Y.; Hall, Bronwyn H. (2020). Depreciation of Business R&D Capital, The Review of Income and Wealth, 66 (1), 161-180. DOI

• We develop a forward-looking profit model to estimate the depreciation rates of business R&D capital. By using U.S. government data between 1987 and 2007, and the newly developed model, we estimate
  both constant and time-varying industry-specific R&D depreciation rates. The results comprise a set of R&D depreciation rates for major U.S. high-tech industries. They align with the main conclusions from
  recent studies that the rates are in general higher than the traditionally assumed 15 percent and vary across industries. The relative ranking of the constant R&D depreciation rates among industries is
  consistent with industry observations and the industry-specific time-varying rates are informative about the dynamics of technological change and the levels of competition across industries. Lastly, we also present a cross-country comparison of the R&D depreciation rates between the U.S. and Japan, and find that the results reflect the relative technological competitiveness in key industries.
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper No. 22473

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2019). The impact of international patent systems: Evidence from accession to the European Patent Convention, Research Policy, 48 (9), 103810. DOI

• We analyze the impact of accession to the regional patent system established by the European Patent Convention (EPC) on 14 countries that acceded between 2000 and 2008. We look at changes in patenting behavior by domestic and foreign applicants at the national patent offices and the European Patent Office (EPO). We find a strong change in patent filing behavior among foreigners seeking patent protection in the accession states, substituting EPO patents for domestic patents immediately. However, there is no discernible reaction among domestic entities in terms of domestic filings, although we do find some evidence that applicants in accession states increased their propensity to file patents with the EPO post-accession. Inventors in accession countries also increase their patent filings slightly post-accession, both at the EPO and at the national offices.
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper No. 24207
• Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 18-03

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2019). Is There a Role for Patents in the Financing of New Innovative Firms?, Industrial and Corporate Change, 28 (3), 657-680. DOI

• It is argued by many that one of the benefits of the patent system is that it creates a property right to invention that enables firms to obtain financing for the development of that invention. In this paper, I review the reasons why ownership of knowledge assets might be useful in attracting finance and then survey the empirical evidence on patent ownership and its impact on the ability of firms to obtain further financing at different stages of their development, both starting up and after becoming established. Studies that attempt to separately identify the role of patent rights and the underlying quality of the associated innovation(s) will be emphasized, although these are rather rare.
• Also published as NBER Working Paper 24370

Contreras, Jorge; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2019). Pledging Patents for the Public Good: Rise and Fall of the Eco-Patent Commons, Houston Law Review, 57 (1), 61-109.

• Commons and pledge structures have been used to achieve various goals of patent holders, including the advancement of social and philanthropic aims. This Article, for the first time, analyzes the formation and structure of a widely acclaimed effort to pool patents for the promotion of green/clean technologies—the Eco-Patent Commons (EcoPC)—as well as its actual impact on technology diffusion and the factors leading to its demise in 2016. We combine quantitative econometric techniques with qualitative interviews to paint the most complete picture of this innovative and ambitious effort to date. Our quantitative results show that the patents contributed to the EcoPC were, on average, less cited than comparable patents, and that the contribution of these patents to the EcoPC did not increase their rates of citation. Moreover, there is no evidence that the availability of these patents through the EcoPC increased the diffusion of pledged inventions. Our interviews revealed significant structural and organizational issues that limited both the attractiveness of the EcoPC to new participants and its value to potential users of pledged technology. Our findings have implications for the effectiveness of patent commons in enabling the diffusion of patented technologies more broadly.

Coad, Alex; Grassano, Nicola; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Moncada-Paternò-Castello, Pietro; Vezzani, Antonio (2019). Innovation and Industrial Dynamics, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 50, 126-131. DOI

• This special issue contains a set of papers that examine the interactions between innovation policy, innovation, and firm competitiveness and performance. Using mostly micro and mostly European data, these studies advance our understanding of these interactions, which can be rather complex and depend to some extent on the institutional and regulatory context in which firms operate.

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Jaffe, Adam (2018). Measuring Science, Technology, and Innovation: A Review, Annals of Science and Technology Policy, 2 (1), 1-74. DOI

• The measurement of scientific, technological, and innovative activities (STI) in the economy is an increasing challenge faced by statistical agencies around the world. In this review, we survey the current state of the art.We discuss the concept of indicators, their quality and use, and present a schematic model of the STI system that can help us identify gaps in the set of indicators commonly in use. We then review the developments in STI measurement that have taken place in the rest of the world, particularly the widespread use of innovation surveys. The monograph concludes with a discussion of the measurement gaps and issues in the U.S., which we identify as innovation (especially in the service sector), non-R&D investment related to innovation, data timeliness, data linkages, measurement related to public policy goals, and the sources of capital for innovation.

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Sena, Vania (2017). Appropriability Mechanisms, Innovation and Productivity: Evidence from the UK, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 26 (1-2), 42-62. DOI

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Kanwar, Sunil (2017). The Market Value of R&D in Weak Innovation Regimes: Evidence from India, The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 17 (1). DOI

• We revisit the relationship between market value and innovation in the context of manufacturing firms in a developing country, using data for Indian firms from 2001 through 2010. Surprisingly, we find that financial markets value the R&D investment of Indian firms the same or higher than it values such investment in developed economies such as the US and European countries, suggesting some degree of underinvestment. The paper explores the use of a proxy for the option value of R&D and finds that this can account for a very small part of the R&D valuation (about 10 per cent). We also find that the market value‐R&D relationship does not vary significantly across industry groups, although these results are rather imprecise.

Hottenrott, Hanna; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Czarnitxki, Dirk (2016). Patents as Quality Signals? The Implications for Financing Constraints on R&D, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 25 (3), 197-217. DOI

• Information about the success of a new technology is usually held asymmetrically between the research and development (R&D)-performing firm and potential lenders and investors. This raises the cost of capital for financing R&D externally, resulting in financing constraints on R&D, especially for firms with limited internal resources. Previous literature provided evidence for start-up firms on the role of patents as signals to investors, in particular to Venture Capitalists. This study adds to previous insights by studying the effects of firms’ patenting activity on the degree of financing constraints on R&D for a panel of established firms. The results show that patents do indeed attenuate financing constraints for small firms where information asymmetries may be particularly high and collateral value is low. Larger firms are not only less subject to financing constraints, but also do not seem to benefit from a patent quality signal.

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Moncada-Paterno-Castello, Pietro; Vezzani, Antonio (2016). Financing Constraints, R&D Investments and Innovative Performances: New Empirical Evidence at the Firm Level for Europe, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 25 (3), 183-196. DOI

• The relationship between financing constraints, investments in research and development (R&D) and innovative performances has recently attracted renewed attention in the aftermath of a financial crisis that has led to problems of access to the credit on which innovation activities crucially rely. In spite of past developments in the theoretical analysis and in the data and methodologies for empirical investigation, some issues have remained unexplored to date. In this introduction to the special issue, we examine the contribution of the papers it contains, which provide new conceptualisations and empirical evidence at the firm level for Europe. Most previous research results, which were mainly based on extending models of financing constraints and physical investments to R&D investments, are confirmed, while new insights about this relationship are uncovered, in terms of the structural characteristics of the constrained firms, of the industries in which they operate, of their innovative activities and of the innovation outcomes they achieve.

Abud Sittler, Maria Jose; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2015). An Empirical Analysis of Primary and Secondary Pharmaceutical Patents in Chile, PLOS ONE 2015. DOI

• We analyze the patent filing strategies of foreign pharmaceutical companies in Chile distinguishing between “primary” (active ingredient) and “secondary” patents (patents on modified compounds, formulations, dosages, particular medical uses, etc.). There is prior evidence that secondary patents are used by pharmaceutical originator companies in the U.S. and Europe to extend patent protection on drugs in length and breadth. Using a novel dataset that comprises all drugs registered in Chile between 1991 and 2010 as well as the corresponding patents and trademarks, we find evidence that foreign originator companies pursue similar strategies in Chile. We find a primary to secondary patents ratio of 1:4 at the drug-level, which is comparable to the available evidence for Europe; most secondary patents are filed over several years following the original primary patent and after the protected active ingredient has obtained market approval in Chile. This points toward effective patent term extensions through secondary patents. Secondary patents dominate “older” therapeutic classes like anti-ulcer and anti-depressants. In contrast, newer areas like anti-virals and anti-neoplastics (anti-cancer) have a much larger share of primary patents.

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar (2012). Recent Research on the Economics of Patents, Annual Review of Economics, 4 (1), 541-565. DOI

• This review surveys recent research on the economics of patents. The topics covered include theoretical and empirical evidence on patents as incentives for innovation, the effectiveness of patents for invention disclosure, patent valuation, and the design of patent systems. We also look at some current policy areas, including software and business method patents, university patenting, and the growth in patent litigation.

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar (2004). Post Grant Review Systems at the U.S. Patent Office – Design Parameters and Expected Impact, Berkeley Law Technology Journal, 19 (3), 989-1016.

• Several policy review boards have advocated the introduction of post-grant patent review mechanisms in the U.S patent system. We discuss to what extent “patent quality” has been deteriorating in the U.S. patent system and then consider the expected impact of post-grant review mechanisms as advocated by the policy review boards. We take a detailed look at the experience with the opposition mechanism at the European Patent Office. Our results indicate that a properly designed U.S. post-grant review could generate high welfare gains. We also discuss the design choices faced by policymakers in the United States and provide recommendations.
• http://btlj.org/data/articles2015/vol19/19_3_S/19-berkeley-tech-l-j-0989-1016.pdf

Beiträge in Sammelwerken

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2021). Tax Policy for Innovation, in: Austan Goolsbee, Benjamin Jones (Hg.), Innovation and Public Policy. NBER Conference Volume, 151-188. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2017). Suzanne Scotchmer: A Bibliographic Study, in: Stephen M. Maurer (Hg.), On the Shoulders of Giants - Colleagues Remember Suzanne Scotchmer's Contributions to Economics (Econometric Society Monographs, 57), 350-357. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Graham, Stuart; Harhoff, Dietmar; Mowery, David C. (2004). Prospects for Improving U.S. Patent Quality via Postgrant Opposition, in: Adam B. Jaffe, Josh Lerner, Scott Stern (Hg.), Innovation Policy and the Economy, 115-143, Bd. 4 2004.

• Also available as NBER Working Paper No. 9731, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge MA
• The recent surge in U.S. patenting and the expansion of patentable subject matter has increased patent office backlogs and raised concerns that, in some cases, patents of insufficient quality or with inadequate search of prior art are being issued. At the same time, patent litigation and its costs are rising. This paper explores the potential of a postgrant review process modeled on the European opposition system to improve patent quality, reveal overlooked prior art, and reduce subsequent litigation. We argue that the welfare gains to such a system may be substantial.
• http://www.jstor.org/stable/25056163

Graham, Stuart J. H.; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar; Mowery, David C. (2003). Post-Issue Patent Quality Control: A Comparative Study of US Patent Re-Examinations and European Patent Oppositions, in: Wesley M. Cohen, S. A. Merrill (Hg.), Patents in the Knowledge-Based Economy, 74-119. Washington, D. C.: The National Academic Press.

Andere Veröffentlichungen, Presseartikel, Interviews

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2018). Innovative Startup Firms and the Patent System, Vox EU Column 2018.

• https://voxeu.org/article/innovative-startup-firms-and-patent-system

Diskussionspapiere

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Mairesse, Jacques (2024). Explorations of Cumulative Advantage Using Data on French Physicists, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 24-09.

• We use a large dataset of approximately 1500 physicists employed by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France to investigate the role of cumulative advantage in their publication career. Measuring output by time series of the number of publications and the number of cite-weighted publications for each physicist, we find that the simple stylized facts predicted by cumulative advantage hold only weakly for these physicists. However, regressions with fixed effects, life cycle effects, and past productivity provide strong evidence that cumulative advantage matters for future productivity. In future work, we plan to compare this sample with those from other countries that have different systems for the conduct of scientific research.
• Available at SSRN
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper No. 32285

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Mairesse, Jacques (2024). Explorations of Cumulative Advantage Using Data on French Physicists, NBER Working Paper, 32285. DOI

• We use a large dataset of approximately 1500 physicists employed by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France to investigate the role of cumulative advantage in their publication career. Measuring output by time series of the number of publications and the number of cite-weighted publications for each physicist, we find that the simple stylized facts predicted by cumulative advantage hold only weakly for these physicists. However, regressions with fixed effects, life cycle effects, and past productivity provide strong evidence that cumulative advantage matters for future productivity. In future work, we plan to compare this sample with those from other countries that have different systems for the conduct of scientific research.
• Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 24-09

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2020). Patents, Innovation, and Development, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 20-07.

• I survey some recent research on the role of patents in encouraging innovation and growth in developing economies, beginning with a brief history of international patent systems and facts about the current use of patents around the world. I discuss research on the implications of patents for international technology transfer and domestic innovation. This is followed by a review of recent work by myself and co‐authors on regional patent systems, the impact of patents on firm performance, and the impact on pharmaceutical patenting and domestic innovation. The conclusion suggests that patents may be relatively unimportant in development, even for middle income countries.
• Available at SSRN
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper 27203
• Also published in: International Review of Applied Economics 36: 1-26

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2020). Patents, Innovation, and Development, NBER Working Paper, No. 27203. DOI

• I survey some recent research on the role of patents in encouraging innovation and growth in developing economies, beginning with a brief history of international patent systems and facts about the current use of patents around the world. I discuss research on the implications of patents for international technology transfer and domestic innovation. This is followed by a review of recent work by myself and co-authors on regional patent systems, the impact of patents on firm performance, and the impact on pharmaceutical patenting and domestic innovation. The conclusion suggests that patents may be relatively unimportant in development, even for middle income countries.
• Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 20-07
• Also published in: International Review of Applied Economics 36: 1-26

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2020). Tax Policy and Innovation, NBER Working Paper Series, 25773 . DOI

• A large number of countries around the world now provide some kind of tax incentive to encourage firms to undertake innovative activity. This paper presents the policy rationale for these incentives, discusses their design and potential effectiveness, and reviews the empirical evidence on their actual effectiveness. The focus is on the two most important and most studied incentives: R&D tax credits and super deductions, and IP boxes (reduced corporate taxes in income from patents and other intellectual property).

Gaessler, Fabian; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar (2019). Should There Be Lower Taxes on Patent Income?, CRC Discussion Paper (CRC/TR 190 Rationality and Competition), No. 177.

• A "patent box" is a term for the application of a lower corporate tax rate to the income derived from the ownership of patents. This tax subsidy instrument has been introduced in a number of countries since 2000. Using comprehensive data on patents filed at the European Patent Office, including information on ownership transfers pre- and post-grant, we investigate the impact of the introduction of a patent box on international patent transfers, on the choice of ownership location, and on invention in the relevant country. We find that the impact on transfers is small but present, especially when the tax instrument contains a development condition and for high value patents (those most likely to have generated income), but that invention itself is not affected. This calls into question whether the patent box is an effective instrument for encouraging innovation in a country, rather than simply facilitating the shifting of corporate income to low tax jurisdictions.
• https://rationality-and-competition.de/wp-content/uploads/discussion_paper/177.pdf
• Also published as Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 18-18
• Published in: Research Polic, Volume 50, Issue 1, January 2021, 104129

Ciaramella, Laurie; Gaessler, Fabian; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar (2019). Patent Transfers and Patent Citations, HAL archives ouvertes, No. hal-02307096.

Contreras, Jorge L.; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2018). Green Technology Diffusion: A Post-Mortem Analysis of the Eco-Patent Commons, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 19-02. DOI

• We revisit the effect of the “Eco-Patent Commons” (EcoPC) on the diffusion of patented environmentally friendly technologies following its discontinuation in 2016, using both participant survey and data analytic evidence. Established in January 2008 by several large multinational companies, the not-for-profit initiative provided royalty-free access to 248 patents covering 94 “green” inventions. Hall and Helmers (2013) suggested that the patents pledged to the commons had the potential to encourage the diffusion of valuable environmentally friendly technologies. Our updated results now show that the commons did not increase the diffusion of pledged inventions, and that the EcoPC suffered from several structural and organizational issues. Our findings have implications for the effectiveness of patent commons in enabling the diffusion of patented technologies more broadly.
• Also published as NBER Working Paper No. 25271
• Also published as CIGI Working Paper No. 161 under the title: Assessing the Effectiveness of the Eco-Patent Commons - A Post-mortem Analysis

Gaessler, Fabian; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar (2018). Should There Be Lower Taxes on Patent Income?, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 18-18.

• A “patent box” is a term for the application of a lower corporate tax rate to the income derived from the ownership of patents. This tax subsidy instrument has been introduced in a number of countries since 2000. Using comprehensive data on patent filings at the European Patent Office, including information on ownership transfers pre‐ and post‐grant, we investigate the impact of the introduction of a patent box on international patent transfers, on the choice of ownership location, and on invention in the relevant country. We find that the impact on transfers is small but present, especially when the tax instrument contains a development condition and for high value patents (those most likely to have generated income), but that invention itself is not affected. This calls into question whether the patent box is an effective instrument for encouraging innovation in a country, rather than simply facilitating the shifting of corporate income to low tax jurisdictions.
• Available at SSRN
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper No. w24843
• Also published as CRC Discussion Paper No. 177
• Also published in: Research Policy Volume 50, Issue 1, January 2021, 104129

Fink, Carsten; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2018). Intellectual Property Use in Middle Income Countries: The Case of Chile, WIPO Economic Research Working Paper, No. 43.

• We analyze the use of intellectual property (IP) by firms in Chile over the decade 1995-2005
  as the then middle-income country experienced rapid economic growth of 4.7 percent per year. We use a novel dataset that contains a combination of detailed firm-level information from the annual manufacturing census, information on firms’ innovative activities from Chile’s
  innovation surveys, and firms’ patent, industrial design, and trademark filings with the Chilean IP office. We use these data to look at how IP use by companies has changed over time and analyze the determinants of IP use, in particular first-time use. We find that sales growth prompts first-time use of patents and trademarks, though such use does not change the growth trajectory of firms nor does it improve their total factor productivity. We also find that trademark use is associated with new-to-the-world product innovation, which suggests that branding may be an important mechanism to appropriate returns to innovation in a middle-income country like Chile.
• https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_econstat_wp_43.pdf
• Also published as NBER Working Paper No. 24348
• Published in: Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 70,Number 1, October 2021, pp. 321–357

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2018). The Impact of International Patent Systems: Evidence from Accession to the European Patent Convention, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 18-03.

• We analyze the impact of accession to the regional patent system established by the European Patent Convention (EPC) on 14 countries that acceded between 2000 and 2008. We look at changes in patenting behavior by domestic and foreign applicants at the national patent offices and the European Patent Office (EPO). Our findings suggest a strong change in patent filing behavior among foreigners seeking patent protection in the accession states, substituting EPO patents for domestic patents immediately. However, there is little evidence that accession increased FDI by patenting foreign companies in accession countries. Moreover, there is no discernible reaction among domestic entities in terms of domestic filings, although we do find some evidence that applicants in accession states increased their propensity to file patents with the EPO post-accession. Inventor-level information suggests that the underlying inventions originate in the accession states.
• Available at SSRN
• Also published as: NBER Working Paper No. 24207
• Also published in Research Policy 48(9), 103810

Contreras, Jorge L.; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2018). Green Technology Diffusion: A Post-Mortem Analysis of the Eco-Patent Commons, NBER Working Paper, No. 25271. DOI

• We revisit the effect of the “Eco-Patent Commons” (EcoPC) on the diffusion of patented environmentally friendly technologies following its discontinuation in 2016, using both participant survey and data analytic evidence. Established in January 2008 by several large multinational companies, the not-for-profit initiative provided royalty-free access to 248 patents covering 94 “green” inventions. Hall and Helmers (2013) suggested that the patents pledged to the commons had the potential to encourage the diffusion of valuable environmentally friendly technologies. Our updated results now show that the commons did not increase the diffusion of pledged inventions, and that the EcoPC suffered from several structural and organizational issues. Our findings have implications for the effectiveness of patent commons in enabling the diffusion of patented technologies more broadly.
• Also published as Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 19-02
• Also published as CIGI Papers No. 163 under the title: Assessing the Effectiveness of the Eco-Patent Commons - A Post-mortem Analysis

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2018). The Impact of International Patent Systems: Evidence from Accession to the European Patent Convention, NBER Working Paper, No. 24207. DOI

• We analyze the impact of accession to the regional patent system established by the European Patent Convention (EPC) on 14 countries that acceded between 2000 and 2008. We look at changes in patenting behavior by domestic and foreign applicants at the national patent offices and the European Patent Office (EPO). Our findings suggest a strong change in patent filing behavior among foreigners seeking patent protection in the accession states, substituting EPO patents for domestic patents immediately. However, there is little evidence that accession increased FDI by patenting foreign companies in accession countries. Moreover, there is no discernible reaction among domestic entities in terms of domestic filings, although we do find some evidence that applicants in accession states increased their propensity to file patents with the EPO post-accession. Inventor-level information suggests that the underlying inventions originate in the accession states.
• Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 18-03
• Also published in: Research Policy, 48(9), 103810

Fink, Carsten; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2018). Intellectual Property Use in Middle Income Countries: The Case of Chile, NBER Working Paper, No. 24348. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

• We analyze the use of intellectual property (IP) by firms in Chile over the decade 1995-2005 as the then middle-income country experienced rapid economic growth of 4.7 percent per year. We use a novel dataset that contains a combination of detailed firm-level information from the annual manufacturing census, information on firms’ innovative activities from Chile’s innovation
  surveys, and firms’ patent, industrial design, and trademark filings with the Chilean IP office. We use these data to look at how IP use by companies has changed over time and analyze the determinants of IP use, in particular first-time use. We find that sales growth prompts first-time use of patents and trademarks, though such use does not change the growth trajectory of firms nor does it improve their total factor productivity. We also find that trademark use is associated with
  new-to-the-world product innovation, which suggests that branding may be an important
  mechanism to appropriate returns to innovation in a middle-income country like Chile.
• http://www.nber.org/papers/w24348
• Also published as WIPO Economic Research Working Paper No. 43
• Also published in: Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 70, October 2021, Number 1, pp. 321 – 357

Hall, Bronwyn H. (2018). Is There a Role for Patents in the Financing of New Innovative Firms?, NBER Working Paper, No. 24370. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. DOI

• It is argued by many that one of the benefits of the patent system is that it creates a property right to invention that enables firms to obtain financing for the development of that invention. In this paper, I review the reasons why ownership of knowledge assets might be useful in attracting finance and then survey the empirical evidence on patent ownership and its impact on the ability of firms to obtain further financing at different stages of their development, both starting up and after becoming established. Studies that attempt to separately identify the role of patent rights and the underlying quality of the associated innovation(s) will be emphasized, although these are rather rare.
• Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 18-06
• Also published in: Industrial and Corporate Change 28 (3), 657 - 680

Contreras, George L.; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian (2018). Assessing the Effectiveness of the Eco-Patent Commons. A Post-mortem Analysis, CIGI Papers, No. 161. Waterloo, Canada: Center for International Governance of Innovation.

• The authors revisit the effect of the “Eco-Patent Commons” (EcoPC) on the diffusion of patented environmentally friendly technologies following its discontinuation in 2016. Established in January 2008 by several large multinational companies, the not-for-profit initiative provided royalty-free access to 248 patents covering 94 “green” inventions. In previous work, Bronwyn Hall and Christian Helmers (2013) suggested that the patents pledged to the commons had the potential to encourage the diffusion of valuable environmentally friendly technologies. The
  updated results in this paper now show that
  the commons did not increase the diffusion of
  pledged inventions, and that the EcoPC suffered from a number of structural and organizational issues. The authors hope these findings will inform future efforts to make environmentally friendly technologies more broadly available for use.
• https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/Paper%20no.161_4.pdf
• Also published as Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 19-02 under the title: Green Technology Diffusion: A Post-Mortem Analysis of the Eco-Patent Commons
• Also published as NBER Working Paper No. 25271 under the title: Green Technology Diffusion: A Post-Mortem Analysis of the Eco-Patent Commons

Li, Wendy; Hall, Bronwyn H. (2018). Depreciation of Business R&D Capital, NBER Working Paper, No. 22473. Cambridge, MA: NBER. DOI

• We develop a forward‐looking profit model to estimate the depreciation rates of business R&D capital. By using data from BEA and NSF between 1987 and 2007, and the newly developed model, we estimate both constant and time‐varying industry‐specific R&D depreciation rates. The results comprise a set of R&D depreciation rates for major U.S. high-tech industries. They align with the main conclusions from recent studies that the rates are in general higher than the traditionally assumed 15 percent and vary across industries. The relative ranking of the constant R&D depreciation rates among industries is consistent with industry observations and the industry‐specific time‐varying rates are informative about the dynamics of technological change and the levels of competition across industries. Lastly, we also present a cross‐country comparison of the R&D depreciation rates between the U.S. and Japan, and find that the results reflect the relative technological competitiveness in key industries.
• Published in: The Review of Income and Wealth, Volume 66, Issue1, March 2020, Pages 161-180

Hall, Bronwyn H.; Helmers, Christian; von Graevenitz, Georg (2017). Technology Entry in the Presence of Patent Thickets, NBER Working Paper Series, 21455.

• We analyze the effect of patent thickets on entry into technology areas by firms in the UK. We
  present a model that describes incentives to enter technology areas characterized by varying
  technological opportunity, complexity, and the potential for hold-up due to the presence of patent thickets. We show empirically that our measure of patent thickets is associated with a reduction of first time patenting in a given technology area controlling for the level of technological complexity and opportunity. Technological areas characterized by more technological complexity and opportunity, in contrast, see more entry. Our evidence indicates that patent thickets raise entry costs, which leads to less entry into technologies regardless of a firm’s size.
• http://www.nber.org/papers/w21455
• Also published as: Oxford Economic Papers

Thoma, Grid; Torrisi, Salvatore; Gambardella, Alfonso; Guellec, Dominique; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Harhoff, Dietmar (2010). Harmonizing and Combining Large Datasets – An Application to Firm-Level Patent and Accounting Data, NBER Working Paper, 15851. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research. DOI

Von Graevenitz, Georg; Wagner, Stefan; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Hoisl, Karin; Giuri, Paola; Gambardella, Alfonso (2007). The Strategic Use of Patents and Its Implications for Enterprise and Competition Policies, Report ENTR/05/82 for DG Enterprise, European Commission.