Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP9777
Authors: Riccardo Crescenzi; Max Nathan; Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
Abstract: This paper investigates how physical, organisational, institutional, cognitive, social, and ethnic proximities between inventors shape their collaboration decisions. Using a new panel of UK inventors and a novel identification strategy, this paper systematically explores the net effects of all these ?proximities? on co-patenting. The regression analysis allows us to identify the full effects of each proximity, both on choice of collaborator and on the underlying decision to collaborate. The results show that physical proximity is an important influence on collaboration, but is mediated by organisational and ethnic factors. Over time, physical proximity increases in salience. For multiple inventors, geographic proximity is, however, much less important than organisational, social, and ethnic links. For inventors as a whole, proximities are fundamentally complementary, while for multiple inventors they are substitutes.
Keywords: collaboration; ethnicity; innovation; knowledge spillovers; patents; proximities; regions
JEL Codes: O31; O33; R11; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Local geographic proximity (R12) | Tendency of inventor pairs to collaborate (O36) |
| Organizational proximity (L29) | Tendency of inventor pairs to collaborate (O36) |
| Geographic proximity (R12) | Tendency of inventor pairs to collaborate (O36) |
| Cultural/ethnic proximity (R23) | Tendency of inventor pairs to collaborate (O36) |
| Geographic proximity (R12) | Organizational proximity (L29) |
| Geographic proximity (R12) | Social and cultural/ethnic factors (Z13) |