Demand Shocks, Procurement Policies, and the Nature of Medical Innovation: Evidence from Wartime Prosthetic Device Patents
研究发现美国内战和一战的需求冲击显著增加了假肢设备专利，内战促使发明者关注生产流程改进，而一战则未产生类似影响，且发明者强调的产品质量维度与不同战争中买家的偏好一致。
Abstract We show that the demand shocks associated with the U.S. Civil War and World War I led to substantial increases in prosthetic device patenting (relative to patenting in other medical and mechanical technology classes). Through analyses of patent texts, we find that the Civil War led inventors to focus on production process improvements, while World War I did not. Further, we find that inventors emphasized dimensions of product quality that aligned with differences in buyers’ preferences across wars. Alongside evidence from the historical record, these findings imply that procurement environments can significantly shape the scientific problems with which inventors engage.