Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/90089 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7797
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper investigates how physical, organisational, institutional, cognitive, social, and ethnic proximities between inventors shape their collaboration decisions. Using a new panel of UK inventors and a novel identification strategy, this paper systematically explores the net effects of all these 'proximities' on co-patenting. The regression analysis allows us to identify the full effects of each proximity, both on choice of collaborator and on the underlying decision to collaborate. The results show that physical proximity is an important influence on collaboration, but is mediated by organisational and ethnic factors. Over time, physical proximity increases in salience. For multiple inventors, geographic proximity is, however, much less important than organisational, social, and ethnic links. For inventors as a whole, proximities are fundamentally complementary, while for multiple inventors they are substitutes.
Subjects: 
innovation
patents
proximities
cities
regions
knowledge spillovers
collaboration
ethnicity
JEL: 
O31
O33
R11
R23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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