Patents and Economic Growth in the Long Term. A Quantitative Approach

The work is a quantitative analysis on the relationship between technology and economic development from data on patents from over twenty countries from the beginning of the 19th century till the end of the twentieth century. The cross section regressions between patents and per capita income show a high correlation between both variables and allow the positive effect of technological innovation on economic development to be seen. The regressions between the time series of patent applications in Spain between 1826 and 1985 and some economic variables indicate in similar fashion that there is a positive correlation between both variables, especially between patents and Gross Fixed Capital Formation.