Publication: The effect of patent protection on inventor mobility
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2017-05-03
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Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of obtaining a patent on the mobility of employee inventors who are at the beginning of their careers. We suggest that patents make human capital more specific to the employer. As a result, we expect that patenting leads to lower levels of mobility. We draw on U.S. patent application data for the period 2001-2012 to analyze this issue. Using average examiner leniency as an exogenous source of variation in granted patents, we find that one additional patent granted decreases inventor mobility by approximately 25 percent. The estimated negative effect is nearly twice as large for discrete technologies (chemicals and pharmaceuticals) for which patent effectiveness is greater. The effect is also more pronounced in cases where the inventor's knowledge can be independently transferred (e.g., inventors with few coauthors) and for moves concerning technologically similar employers. The results have implications for the effect of patents on knowledge diffusion.
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Inventors, Patents, Mobility, Appropriation, Firm-specific Human Capital