The size of patent applications has doubled over the past two decades, resulting in a dramatic surge in the workload of patent offices all over the world and serious concerns over patent quality standards. The current paper investigates the sources of this inflation in claims and pages for EPO...

This paper explores the determinants of the probability for a patent application to result in a grant (as opposed to being rejected by the patent office or withdrawn by the patentee). A grant is interpreted as signaling the value of the invention. Guellec and van Pottelsberghe (2000) studied the...

The OECD is developing a strategic response to the crisis focusing on two priority areas: finance, competition and governance; and restoring long-term growth. As part of this strategic response, the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (DSTI) has analysed the likely impact of the...

This paper presents estimates of the long-term impact of various sources of knowledge (R&D performed by the business sector, the public sector and foreign firms) on multifactor productivity growth of 16 countries from 1980 to 1998. The main results show that the three sources of knowledge are...

This document attempts to quantify the aggregate net effect of government funding on business R&D in 17 OECD Member countries over the past two decades. Grants, procurement, tax incentives and direct performance of research (in public laboratories or universities) are the major policy tools in...

This study investigates the long-term effects of various types of R&D on multifactor productivity growth, which is the spillover effect of R&D. Econometric estimates are conducted on a panel of 16 OECD countries, over the period 1980-98. All results are averages over countries and time, and...