Patents and Research Investments: Assessing the Empirical Evidence
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Williams_Patents and research.pdf
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Author(s)
Budish, Eric
Roin, Benjamin N.
Williams, Heidi L
Date Issued
May 2016
Journal
American Economic Review
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Budish, Eric, Benjamin N. Roin, and Heidi Williams. “Patents and Research Investments: Assessing the Empirical Evidence†.” American Economic Review 106, no. 5 (May 2016): 183–187. 2017 © American Economic Association
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A well-developed theoretical literature--dating back at least to Nordhaus (1969)--has analyzed optimal patent policy design. We re-present the core trade-off of the Nordhaus model and highlight an empirical question which emerges from the Nordhaus framework as a key input into optimal patent policy design: namely, what is the elasticity of R&D investment with respect to the patent term? We then review the--surprisingly small--body of empirical evidence that has been developed on this question over the nearly half century since the publication of Nordhaus's book.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Sloan School of Management
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20161091
