Catching-Up and Falling Behind: Knowledge Spillover from American to German Machine Toolmakers
研究1877-1932年间德国机床制造商如何通过模仿美国技术实现追赶，揭示专利制度在知识溢出中的作用，对理解后发国家创新战略有参考价值。
Today, German machine toolmakers accuse their Chinese competitors of violating patent rights and imitating German technology. A century ago, German machine toolmakers used the same methods to imitate American technology. To understand the dynamics of this catching-up process, we use patent statistics to analyze firms’ activities between 1877 and 1932. We show that German firms deployed imitating strategies in the late nineteenth century and the 1920s to catch-up to their American competitors. The German administration supported this strategy by stipulating a patent law that discriminated against foreign patent holders and by delaying the granting of patents to foreign applicants.