Worker mobility across firms can enhance innovation by spreading knowledge, but such mobility may also hinder … innovation by making firms reluctant to invest in R&D. A common way that firms limit workers' mobility is with noncompete … agreements (NCAs). We examine how the legal enforceability of NCAs affects innovation, as measured by patenting, using data on …

,786 public corporations, and measures of both patent quality and patent value, we find that, while average invention value rises …

locations. In 12 of these areas, innovation is particularly concentrated in a single, large firm; we refer to such locations as …

effect on innovation. We develop a simple "trapped factor" model of innovation that is consistent with these empirical …

risks. We find that better appropriability in the sense of more effective patent strength and secrecy has a strong negative …

This paper documents the increasing importance of software for successful innovation in manufacturing sectors well …

This paper examines the impact of government assistance through R&D grants on innovation output for firms in New … the probability that a firm in the manufacturing and service sectors applies for a patent during 2005-2009, but no … the world while its effects on process innovation and any product innovation are relatively much weaker. Moreover, there …

We use the U.S. patent data merged with firm-level datasets to establish new facts about the role of mega firms in … patent)--and their hits tend to generate more follow-on patents assigned to other firms when compared to hits generated by …