Selection bias in innovation studies: A simple test

Gaétan de Rassenfosse and Annelies Wastyn

No 12-012, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

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

Keywords: Innovation production function; patent; R&D; selection bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C18 C52 C81 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~ and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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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 (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12012

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