IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v127y2022i3d10.1007_s11192-022-04268-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patents as indicators of the technological position of countries on a global level?

Author

Listed:
  • Loreto Mora-Apablaza

    (Universidad de Concepción)

  • Carlos Navarrete

    (Université de Toulouse
    Center of Innovation Systems Studies (CIS2)
    Center for Collective Learning (CCL)
    Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse, IRIT)

Abstract

The technological capabilities of a country play a key role in identifying paths to economic growth and development. Policymakers have a special interest in understanding the advantages and opportunities that arise in a location, with the purpose to make good public policy recommendations. One widely used measure in the literature of economic complexity is the revealed comparative advantage ( $${\mathrm{RCA}}$$ RCA ) index. In this paper, we propose the concept of revealed comparative advantages weighted ( $${\mathrm{RCA}}_{w}$$ RCA w ) as a measure of technological capability, using metrics of concentration (number of patents) and impact (patents citations) at the same time. Here, we analyze near two million patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) associated with 44 countries in the period 2006–2015. We show that the GDP per capita of a country is positively correlated (R2 = 30%) with the number of citations that its patents receive. We also find evidence indicating that more complex countries lose a lower rate of their capabilities. Finally, we built a network to represent the connections of technologies based on this $${\mathrm{RCA}}_{w}$$ RCA w matrix called Citation Space. We found that the proximity of two technologies and the technological diversity of a country varies significantly if we use $${\mathrm{RCA}}$$ RCA or $${{\mathrm{RCA}}}_{w}$$ RCA w . We hope that these findings contribute to enriching the discussion about citation matters at the time of describing capabilities of a territory.

Suggested Citation

  • Loreto Mora-Apablaza & Carlos Navarrete, 2022. "Patents as indicators of the technological position of countries on a global level?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1233-1246, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:127:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-022-04268-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-022-04268-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-022-04268-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-022-04268-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2013. "The Emergence of New Industries at the Regional Level in S pain: A Proximity Approach Based on Product Relatedness," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(1), pages 29-51, January.
    3. Frank Neffke & Martin Henning & Ron Boschma, 2011. "How Do Regions Diversify over Time? Industry Relatedness and the Development of New Growth Paths in Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(3), pages 237-265, July.
    4. Cesar A. Hidalgo & Ricardo Hausmann, 2009. "The Building Blocks of Economic Complexity," Papers 0909.3890, arXiv.org.
    5. Boschma, Ron & Heimeriks, Gaston & Balland, Pierre-Alexandre, 2014. "Scientific knowledge dynamics and relatedness in biotech cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 107-114.
    6. Petralia, Sergio & Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Morrison, Andrea, 2017. "Climbing the ladder of technological development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 956-969.
    7. Manuel Trajtenberg, 1990. "A Penny for Your Quotes: Patent Citations and the Value of Innovations," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 172-187, Spring.
    8. Jaffe, Adam B, 1986. "Technological Opportunity and Spillovers of R&D: Evidence from Firms' Patents, Profits, and Market Value," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 984-1001, December.
    9. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    10. Boschma, Ron & Capone, Gianluca, 2015. "Institutions and diversification: Related versus unrelated diversification in a varieties of capitalism framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1902-1914.
    11. Ron Boschma & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Dieter Franz Kogler, 2015. "Relatedness and technological change in cities: the rise and fall of technological knowledge in US metropolitan areas from 1981 to 2010," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(1), pages 223-250.
    12. Elmira Janavi & Mohammad Javad Mansourzadeh & Mojgan Samandar Ali Eshtehardi, 2020. "A methodology for developing scientific diversification strategy of countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2229-2264, December.
    13. Kim, Jeeeun & Lee, Sungjoo, 2015. "Patent databases for innovation studies: A comparative analysis of USPTO, EPO, JPO and KIPO," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 332-345.
    14. C. A. Hidalgo & B. Klinger & A. -L. Barabasi & R. Hausmann, 2007. "The Product Space Conditions the Development of Nations," Papers 0708.2090, arXiv.org.
    15. Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Cristian Jara-Figueroa & Sergio G. Petralia & Mathieu P. A. Steijn & David L. Rigby & César A. Hidalgo, 2020. "Complex economic activities concentrate in large cities," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(3), pages 248-254, March.
    16. Miguel R. Guevara & Dominik Hartmann & Manuel Aristarán & Marcelo Mendoza & César A. Hidalgo, 2016. "The research space: using career paths to predict the evolution of the research output of individuals, institutions, and nations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(3), pages 1695-1709, December.
    17. Aamena Alshamsi & Flávio L. Pinheiro & Cesar A. Hidalgo, 2018. "Optimal diversification strategies in the networks of related products and of related research areas," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, December.
    18. R. D. Shelton & Loet Leydesdorff, 2012. "Publish or patent: Bibliometric evidence for empirical trade-offs in national funding strategies," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(3), pages 498-511, March.
    19. César Hidalgo & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Ron Boschma & Mercedes Delgado & Maryann Feldma & Koen Frenken & Edward Glaeser & Canfei He & Dieter F. Kogler & Andrea Morrison & Frank Neffke & David Rigby, 2018. "The Principle of Relatedness," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1830, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2018.
    20. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Catalán, Pablo & Navarrete, Carlos & Figueroa, Felipe, 2022. "The scientific and technological cross-space: Is technological diversification driven by scientific endogenous capacity?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    2. Hidalgo, César A., 2023. "The policy implications of economic complexity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    3. Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Boschma, Ron, 2022. "Do scientific capabilities in specific domains matter for technological diversification in European regions?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    4. O’Clery, Neave & Kinsella, Stephen, 2022. "Modular structure in labour networks reveals skill basins," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    5. Pinheiro, Flávio L. & Hartmann, Dominik & Boschma, Ron & Hidalgo, César A., 2022. "The time and frequency of unrelated diversification," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    6. C'esar A. Hidalgo, 2022. "The Policy Implications of Economic Complexity," Papers 2205.02164, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    7. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung - welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert des Wachstum?," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 144, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    8. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissensintensive Unternehmensdienste, Wissens-Spillovers und regionales Wachstum. Teilprojekt 1: Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung – Welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert das Wach," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58342.
    9. Hausmann, Ricardo & Stock, Daniel P. & Yıldırım, Muhammed A., 2022. "Implied comparative advantage," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    10. Pintar, Nico & Scherngell, Thomas, 2022. "The complex nature of regional knowledge production: Evidence on European regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    11. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    12. Yang Li & Frank Neffke, 2022. "Relatedness in regional development: in search of the right specification," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2208, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Apr 2022.
    13. Mariane Santos Françoso & Ron Boschma & Nicholas Vonortas, 2024. "Regional diversification in Brazil: The role of relatedness and complexity," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), March.
    14. Eum, Wonsub & Lee, Jeong-Dong, 2019. "Role of production in fostering innovation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 84, pages 1-10.
    15. Wonsub Eum & Jeong‐Dong Lee, 2022. "Alternative paths of diversification for developing countries," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2336-2355, November.
    16. Pier-Paolo Saviotti & Andreas Pyka¤ & Bogang Jun, 2020. "Diversification, structural change, and economic development," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1301-1335, November.
    17. Flavio L. Pinheiro & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Ron Boschma & Dominik Hartmann, 2022. "The Dark Side of the Geography of Innovation. Relatedness, Complexity, and Regional Inequality in Europe," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2202, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2022.
    18. Li, Yang & Neffke, Frank M.H., 2024. "Evaluating the principle of relatedness: Estimation, drivers and implications for policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    19. Wolf-Hendrik Uhlbach & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Thomas Scherngell, 2017. "R&D Policy and Technological Trajectories of Regions: Evidence from the EU Framework Programmes," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1722, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2017.
    20. Ron Boschma, 2018. "The geographical dimension of structural change," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1839, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2018.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Patents; Citations; Economic complexity; ECI; Impact; Technological diversity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O39 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Other
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:127:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-022-04268-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.