Internationalization of Corporate R&D: Leveraging the Changing Geography of Innovation

This report consists of several studies, covering different countries, industry sectors and analytical approaches. Together, the studies provide a multi-faceted account of the extent of corporate R&D internationalization, its driving forces and its potential implications for countries, with a particular focus on Sweden. As argued in the report, policymakers can further strengthen the Swedish position to take advantage of the increasing global flows of corporate R&D.

Foreign and Domestic R&D Investment

The authors draw on the technological opportunity, appropriability, and demand framework suggested by Cohen and Klepper (1996) to develop a simple model of foreign and domestic R&D investment. The empirical results confirm that the foreign R&D ratio depends on relative technological opportunities, relative demand conditions, and a proxy for firm-level R&D productivity.

Patents, Imitation and Licensing in an Asymmetric Dynamic R&D Race

The paper uses a simple two-firm asymmetric ability multistage R&D race model to analyse the effect of different types of patent policy regimes and licensing arrangement on the speed of innovation, firm value and consumers surplus. The paper demonstrates the circumstances under which a weak patent protection regime, which, according to the authors, facilitates free imitation of any intermediate technology, may yield a higher overall surplus than a regime that awards patent for the final innovation.

Prizes for Basic Research - Human Capital, Economic Might and the Shadow of History

This paper studies the impact of global factors on patterns of basic research across countries and time. The authors construct a stylized model, predicting that lagged relative GDP of a country relative to the GDP of all countries engaging in basic research is an important explanatory variable of country’s share of prizes.

Patents, Imitation and Licensing in an Asymmetric Dynamic R&D Race

The paper uses a simple two-firm asymmetric ability multistage R&D race model to analyse the effect of different types of patent policy regimes and licensing arrangement on the speed of innovation, firm value and consumers surplus. The paper demonstrates the circumstances under which a weak patent protection regime, which facilitates free imitation of any intermediate technology, may yield a higher overall surplus than a regime that awards patent for the final innovation.

Industrial Funding of Academic R&D Continues to Decline in FY 2004

For the third consecutive year, industrial support of U.S. academic research dropped, according to the InfoBrief from the National Science Foundation. The 2.6 percent decrease in fiscal year 2004 from the previous year is the sharpest yet in the three-year trend, following a 1.1 percent reduction in FY 2003 and 1.6 percent in FY 2002.