Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15620
Authors: Alessandro Nuvolari; Gaspare Tortorici; Michelangelo Vasta
Abstract: This paper examines the patterns of technology transfer from Britain to France during the early phases of industrialization; it does so by making use of a dataset comprising all patents granted in France during the period 1791-1844. Exploiting the peculiarities of the French legislation, we construct an array of patent quality indicators and econometrically investigate their determinants. We find that patents filed by British inventors or French inventors personally linked with British ones were of relatively higher quality. Overall, our results show that the French innovation system was effectively capable of attracting and absorbing key technologies from Britain.
Keywords: technology transfer; patents; industrial revolution; france; britain
JEL Codes: N73; O3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| patents filed by British inventors (O34) | French patent quality (L15) |
| French inventors with personal ties to British inventors (B31) | French patent quality (L15) |
| British connections (N23) | French patent quality (L15) |
| involvement of patent agents (O34) | French patent quality (L15) |