In a model of sequential patent races, it is examined whether or not introducing a patent law in the home country is … beneficial to the firms and the society as a whole given the foreign country already offers patent protection. Before the first … patent race starts, the firms and the foreign country share interests. For a given total number of firms, the welfare effect …

When the home country introduces a patent law after the winner of the patent race is known the country's welfare may … rise only if the domestic firm wins. If the home country decides before the patent race ends, the welfare may be increased …

Patent citation data are used in a growing body of economics and business research on technological diffusion. Research … diffusing outward from the patenting entity. Until now, there exists little evidence on whether or not patent citations are a … good measure of knowledge flows. Our paper assesses the legitimacy of using European patent citations as a measure of …