Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17911
Authors: Philippe Aghion; Matthew O. Jackson; Antoine Mayerowitz; Abhijit Tagade
Abstract: We use the universe of US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data on patents and inventors from 1976 to 2017 to look at how inventors’ potential concern for business-stealing affects coauthorship on patents. First, we find an inverted-U shape in the fraction of coauthors that an inventor has per year who are new as a function number of other inventors also working in an inventor's field. Second, we find that after a breakthrough invention, an inventor brings in persistently fewer than usual new coauthors. Third, a higher potential concern for business stealing—as measured either by the number of others working or the average price markups by firms in the area—leads to a higher drop in the fraction of new co-authors per patent after a breakthrough. We show how these patterns can be explained via a simple model in which inventors trade off gains from collaboration against threats of business stealing.
Keywords: innovation; business stealing; collaboration
JEL Codes: D85; L14
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| number of other inventors in field (O31) | fraction of new coauthors (C46) |
| potential concerns for business stealing (F23) | fraction of new coauthors per patent after breakthrough (O36) |
| breakthrough patent (O36) | growth rate of inventor's network (O39) |
| breakthrough invention (O36) | fraction of new coauthors (C46) |