International Conference on Innovation and Patent Research at ZEW

On June 3-4, 2013, the fifth Conference on the Economics of Innovation and Patenting was held at ZEW in Mannheim. The Conference was hosted in cooperation with the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation" (MaCCI). Some 100 scholars from Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia took part. The conference enjoys a strong reputation in the professional world, as reflected by the submission of over 190 research articles to the conference committee, of which 48 were selected for presentation.

The conference papers addressed a wide range of topics, including the financing of innovation in firms, incentives for R&D, the role played by human capital and management experience for innovation success, and the assessment of innovation and research policy instruments. Additional topics included the determinants of environmental innovation, inventions created by public research institutes, and inventor networks. A key focus of the conference was on the role patents play in the innovation process as well as on the institutional particularities of and current reforms to national patent systems.

Plenary Lectures

Five leading scholars presented their latest research findings in a series of plenary lectures. Diego Comin of Harvard Business School illuminated time trends in the introduction of new technologies in poor and rich countries over the last 200 years. He also discussed to what extent the adoption of new technologies has contributed to greater income disparities between poor and rich countries. Liu Xielin of the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing shed light on the particularities of the Chinese innovation model. He presented examples of successful Chinese firms that have evolved from imitating products developed abroad to become international technology market leaders.

Mark Roberts of Pennsylvania State University presented econometric models for estimating the structural parameters of dynamic innovation models and showed results based on ZEW's Mannheim Innovation Panel. Brian Wright of UC Berkeley lectured on the licencing strategies of university technology transfer offices. In addition, he discussed how exclusive licences impact researchers' selection of topics to investigate. 

Dietmar Harhoff of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Propertyand Competition Law in Munich argued in his presentation that the reliable estimation of the value of a patent requires the explicit consideration of other patents that are closely related technologically.

Panel discussion on mission-oriented innovation policy

Research, technology and innovation policy is increasingly viewed as a tool for solving key societal challenges, such as the realization of a green economy or resource-conserving energy production. In a panel discussion moderated by Georg Licht (ZEW), representatives from academia, politics, and business discussed potentials for mission-oriented versus horizontal R&D policies in order to strengthen competitiveness.

Dominique Foray (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), a member of the "Innovation for Growth" Expert Group under European Commissioner for Research Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, focused his talk on the features of EU research policy. Engelbert Beyer of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research explained the role played by various policy instruments within the scope of Germany's High-Tech Strategy 2020. He emphasised the need to address societal challenges without eliminating market mechanisms. Stuart Graham of Georgia State University, chief economist of the US patent office until recently, provided insights into Obama’s administration's technology policy. As a representative from the business sector, Jochen Maas of Sanofi-Aventis discussed the current R&D strategy of the pharmaceuticals industry. He argued that tax subsidies similar to that which already exist in many European countries should be introduced for private-sector R&D expenditures in Germany for reasons of competitiveness.

The Fritz Thyssen Foundation provided financial support for the conference, enabling many young researchers to attend.

Contact

Dr. Birgit Aschhoff, aschhoff@zew.de

Paula Schliessler, schliessler@zew.de