This paper investigates whether the distinction between patent citations added by the inventor or the examiner is relevant for the issue of geographical concentration of knowledge flows (as embodied in citations). The distinction between inventor and examiner citations enables us to work with a...

This paper addresses the question of whether patent citations are useful indicators of technology flows. We exploit the distinction between citations added by inventors and patent examiners. We use information from the search reports of European Patent Office patent examiners to construct our...