2005), Cross Country Differences in Patent Propensity: A Firm-Level Investigation, Giornale degli economisti e Annali di economia

We investigate cross country differences in patent propensity in the European Union using the European Patent Office database and the database on European firms AMADEUS. We ask how much of the differences in patent propensity at the aggregate level can be accounted for by a more disaggregate analysis. First, we find that the large and persistent cross country differences cannot be explained by the sectoral composition only: patent propensity differs substantially even within sectors. Second, country effects play an important role in deter-mining the probability that a firm engages in innovative activity, even after controlling for firms characteristics; on the contrary, they are less relevant for the amount of innovative output of those firms that do engage in patenting. This indicates that some countries might be more conducive for firms to undertake innovation activity, but that, once this is done, innovative firms are less sensitive to the home country effect