What Happens When Firms Patent? New Evidence from U.S. Economic Census Data
利用NBER专利数据与美国人口普查微观数据的新匹配，研究发现专利存量增加与企业规模、范围、技能和资本密集度上升相关，首次申请专利的企业也有类似效应。
We build a new concordance between the NBER Patent Data and U.S. Census microdata and use it to examine what happens when firms patent. We find strong evidence that increases in patent stock are associated with increases in firm size, scope, and skill and capital intensity. We find somewhat weaker evidence that changes in patenting are positively correlated with changes in total factor productivity. We also analyze first-time patentees and find similar effects following initial patent application. Together, these results suggest that patenting is indeed associated with real changes within firms, in particular with growth through increases in scope. © 2011 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.