Selection Bias in Innovation Studies. A Simple Test

Gaétan de Rassenfosse, Anja Schoen and Annelies Wastyn
Additional contact information
Anja Schoen: Technische Universität München
Annelies Wastyn: Department of Managerial Economics, Strategy and Innovation, KU Leuven

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: The study of the innovative output of organizations often relies on a count of patents filed at one single office of reference such as the European Patent Office (EPO). Yet, not all organizations file their patents at the EPO, raising the specter of a selection bias. Using novel datasets of the whole population of patents by Belgian firms and German universities, we show that the single-office count results in a selection bias that affects econometric estimates of invention production functions. We propose a methodology to evaluate whether estimates that rely on the single-office count are affected by a selection bias.

Keywords: Knowledge production function; patent count; R&D; selection bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C18 C52 C81 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2013-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-knm and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Selection bias in innovation studies: A simple test (2014)
Working Paper: Selection bias in innovation studies: A simple test (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n08

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