Abstract
This paper characterizes the trends in technological innovation and intellectual property in four Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru). Toward this aim, we collected a database of patents granted at the national and university levels in combination with information from a variety of sources to construct a set of plausible explanatory variables. Based on panel data at the national level, we verify that the number of patents granted to universities is strongly associated with the share of resources, as a percentage of GDP, invested in science and technology. At the university level, we find that institutions with more scientific publications and larger enrolment size tend to be granted more innovation patents. To some extent, the evidence presented in this paper indicates that both the absolute and relative sizes of resources invested in scientific and technological research at the university level are subject to economies of scale: a greater amount of resources invested in technological research is associated with increasing levels of innovation and patenting activity.
Highlights
A political concern in the agenda for governments and universities alike has been the relationship between science and technology and the corresponding link between universities and industries
We find that those universities with more scientific publications and higher enrolment size tend to obtain more granted innovation patents
To achieve a better understanding of the dynamics of university patenting in Latin America, we carried out a comparative analysis based on the number of patents granted to universities from four Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru
Summary
A political concern in the agenda for governments and universities alike has been the relationship between science and technology and the corresponding link between universities and industries. To what extent can the amount of resources invested in research and development by the innovation systems at the national level be associated to technology transfer activity as measured by the number of patents granted to universities? We aim to answer these questions with an empirical application based on quantitative data from four Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru For this aim, we assembled a database of granted patents at the national and university levels in combination with information from a variety of sources to construct a set of plausible explanatory variables. The fifth section makes a summary of the findings and puts forward some limitations and considerations for further research
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