Who Uses the Patent System in Developing Countries? A Study of Patent Propensities in Argentina, 1992-2001

This paper aims at studying the determinants of the patent behavior of Argentinean manufacturing firms. In particular, we seek to identify the factors that affect the probability of obtaining a patent and the determinants of the number of patents granted. We include industry fixed effects and our sample is based on data extracted from two innovation surveys. Our main results are : (i) foreign owned firms have a higher probability of obtaining a patent than domestic ones; and (ii) local R&D activities have not had any impact on the probability of obtaining a patent neither on the number of patents obtained by the firms.