In the 1990s, patenting schemes changed in many respects: upcoming new technologies accelerated the shift from price competition towards competition based on technical inventions, a worldwide surge in patenting took place, and the 'patent thicket' arose as a consequence of strategic patenting....

In the context of increasing globalization of markets, merger and acquisition activities in the 1990s are said to be driven by reorganization processes with respect to concentration on firms’ core competencies in order to increase or maintain market power in international markets. This paper...

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) constitute a disruption to the working environment of the inventive labor force of the acquired company. If inventors would respond with a decline of their patent productivity or departure from the firm this can be detrimental to the innovative process within the...

This paper tests some of the predictions of recent advances in trade theorythat have focused on different trade patterns of firms within the samesector. Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple (2005) develop a model in whichinnate productivity differences between firms determine the degree ofinternational...

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) constitute a disruption to the workingenvironment of the inventive labor force of the acquired company. If inventors wouldrespond with a decline of their patent productivity or departure from the firm thiscan be detrimental to the innovative process within the...

How do intellectual property rights influence academic science? We investigate the consequences of the introduction of software patents in the U.S. on the publications of university researchers in the field of computer science. Difference-in-difference estimations reveal that software scientists...