Business dynamics of innovating firms: Linking U.S. patents with administrative data on workers and firms

This paper discusses the construction of a new longitudinal database tracking inventors and patent‐owning firms over time. We match granted patents between 2000 and 2011 to administrative databases of firms and workers housed at the U.S. Census Bureau. We use inventor information in addition to the...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of economics & management strategy Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 372 - 402
Main Authors:	Graham, Stuart J.H., Grim, Cheryl, Islam, Tariqul, Marco, Alan C., Miranda, Javier
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Cambridge Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-09-2018
Subjects:	Censuses Companies innovation Inventors linked administrative data Patenting Small business Tracking Trade Validity Workers United States > US
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	This paper discusses the construction of a new longitudinal database tracking inventors and patent‐owning firms over time. We match granted patents between 2000 and 2011 to administrative databases of firms and workers housed at the U.S. Census Bureau. We use inventor information in addition to the patent assignee firm name to improve on previous efforts linking patents to firms. The triangulated database allows us to maximize match rates and provide validation for a large fraction of matches. In this paper, we describe the construction of the database and explore basic features of the data. We find patenting firms, particularly young patenting firms, disproportionally contribute jobs to the U.S. economy. We find that patenting is a relatively rare event among small firms but that most patenting firms are nevertheless small, and that patenting is not as rare an event for the youngest firms compared to the oldest firms. Although manufacturing firms are more likely to patent than firms in other sectors, we find that most patenting firms are in the services and wholesale sectors. These new data are a product of collaboration within the U.S. Department of Commerce, between the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Bibliography:	We thank Kirsten Apple, David Dreisigmeyer and Jim Hirabayashi for their assistance in answering many questions related to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data and processes. We thank Deborah Wagner and Juan Carlos Humud for their work to assign protected identity keys to inventors. We thank Lucia Foster, John Haltiwanger, two anonymous referees, and participants at seminars at the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for useful comments. We thank participants in the Annual Searle Center Research Roundtable on Patents and Technology and NBER Innovation workshop. Graham and Marco were employees of the USPTO and Islam was an employee of the U.S. Census Bureau during the drafting of this document. Any opinions and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Census Bureau or the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential data are disclosed.
ISSN:	1058-6407 1530-9134
DOI:	10.1111/jems.12260