The costs anf benefits of a patent regime

This thesis deals with patents and their impact on innovative activity. Patents represent some kind of regulation of a free market which should improve market failures and create incentives for innovation activity. This stimulation should be then reflected in the growth of technologies. The relation between patenting and productivity which represents the growth of technologies is analyzed on panel data comprising of Finland, Denmark, Italy, Great Britain and the Netherlands. The analysis is undertaken on the industry level, namely on chemical industry, as firms in this industry consider patents as being an efficient form of invention protection. The outcomes of my analysis imply a difference between short term and long term relation between patents and productivity. Patents do not seem to influence productivity immediately, they seem to have a negative impact in the long run though