Globalization of innovation production: A patent-based industry analysis

Abstract

Using patent-based indicators, this paper aims at explaining to what extent the production of innovation is globalized. Firstly, it provides evidence ‐ over time, across countries and across industrial sectors ‐ on the patterns in international technological collaboration and in cross-border ownership of innovation. Secondly, a fractional logit model is estimated for a unique panel dataset covering patent information of 21 industries in 29 countries from 1980 to 2005. The results show that countries tend to be more globalized in industrial sectors in which they are less technologically specialized. It suggests that globalization of innovation is more driven by home-base augmenting determinants than home-base exploiting ones. The empirical findings also indicate that the intensity of globalization of innovation is higher in multidisciplinary country-industry pairs and in those which compete internationally in trade.