Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/307379 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11449
Publisher: 
CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
We show that firm and industry, rather than inventor and invention factors, explain more than half of the variation in inventor returns in administrative employer-inventor-patent-linked data from Germany. Between-firm variation in inventive rents is strongly associated with inventor mobility. Inventors are more likely to make a move just before a patent is filed than shortly thereafter and benefit from their move through a mobility-related marginal inventor return. Employers that pay inventor returns in excess of the expected return gain a favorable position in the market for inventive labor with subsequent increases in patent quality and quantity. Consistent with theoretical arguments, effect sizes also depend on employer-inventor technological complementarity, degree of competition, and invention quality.
Subjects: 
inventor returns
labor mobility
patents
inventive productivity
JEL: 
O31
J24
J62
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.