OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook: Revealed technology advantage in selected fields (Edition 2016)

The revealed technology advantage (RTA) index provides an indication of the relative specialisation of a given country in selected technological domains and is based on patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. It is defined as a country’s share of patents in a particular technology field divided by the country’s share in all patent fields. The index is equal to zero when the country holds no patent in a given sector; is equal to 1 when the country’s share in the sector equals its share in all fields (no specialisation); and above 1 when a positive specialisation is observed. Only economies with more than 500 patents over the period reviewed are included. Data are drawn from the OECD Patent Database.