Abstract
Technological differences between countries have been a
widely discussed issue in economic history in recent
years. Theories about early and late adopters of
technology and catch-up processes, national innovation
systems, and competitive advantages of countries, have
been advanced and debated. In new growth theories, the
expenditures in R&D have been used as a proxy, along with
capital and knowledge, to measure "inputs" into
technological development.
The objective of this study is to analyses empirically
Swedish and Finnish patenting in the United States Patent
and Trademark Office (USPTO), and to advance possible
explanations for their specialisation in different
industrial branches during different periods of time,
despite similar resource endowments. In order to achieve
this objective, and place it in a context of long-run
structural change, we shall use relative "revealed
advantage" measures based on USPTO data along with OECD
data on R&D, production and exports. We assume that,
during different periods of time, the number of patents
granted in a third country reflects the technological
specialisation patterns, as well as the export profile,
of the studied country at that particular point in time.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Technology and Human Capital in Historical Perspective |
| Editors | Jonas Ljundberg, Jan-Pieter Smits |
| Place of Publication | Basingstoke |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Pages | 205-228 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-0-230-52381-4 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4039-2067-6, 978-1-349-51489-2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2004 |
| MoE publication type | D2 Article in professional manuals or guides or professional information systems or text book material |