Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper examines the trends in geographic localization of knowledge spillovers via patent citations, extracting multiple cohorts of new sample US patents from the period of 1976–2015. Despite accelerating globalization and widespread perception of the ‘death of distance’, our matched-sample study reveals significant and growing localization effects of knowledge spillovers at both intra- and international levels after the 1980s. Increased localization effects have been accompanied by greater heterogeneity across states and industries. The results are robust to various methods of proxying the existing geography of knowledge production.
Highlights
Patents offer a unique source of information on the patterns of economic activity
We examine the trends in localization effects of knowledge spillovers considering utility patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) during the period of 1976-2015
We develop an index based on the inverse of closeness centrality, or “farness,” that incorporates the potential effect of agglomeration of research activities
Summary
Patents offer a unique source of information on the patterns of economic activity. Trajtenberg, 1990; Lanjouw and Schankerman, 2004; Hall, Jaffe, and Trajtenberg, 2005), thereby providing some clues about the engine of long-run economic success. This paper examines another important aspect of information provided by patents, the geography of economic activities. Citations are an explicit source of links between technologies, individuals, and locations. Even when two patents are not linked via citations, a match in technology class or inventor location implies the presence of another, implicit, link
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