firms may protect their inventions by means of intellectual property rights, such as patents. By taking out a patent … of patents on the dissemination of R&D findings is, however, insignificant. Therefore, we conclude that patent …From a firm’s perspective two competing forces are driving the decision to invest in innovation. On the one hand …

remaining career. We use European patent data for a period of 32 years for 1240 German inventors. The patent data are linked … of inventors applying for the first patent after completing education or being in the highest quartile of citations … received for the first patent. The higher career productivity seems to be a consequence of higher individual ability rather …