Applicant and examiner citations in U.S. patents: An overview and analysis

Prior art patent citations have become a popular measure of patent quality and knowledge flow between firms. Interpreting these measurements is complicated, in some cases, because prior art citations are added by patent examiners as well as by patent applicants. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) adopted new reporting procedures in 2001, making it possible to measure examiner and applicant citations separately for the first time. We analyzed prior art citations listed in all U.S. patents granted in 2001-2003, and found that examiners played a significant role in identifying prior art, adding 63% of citations on the average patent, and all citations on 40% of patents granted. An analysis of variance found that firm-specific variables explain most of the variation in examiner-citation shares. Using multivariate regression, we found that foreign applicants to the USPTO had the highest proportion of citations added by examiners. High-volume patent applicants had a greater proportion of examiner citations, and a substantial number of firms won patents without listing a single applicant citation. In terms of technology, we found higher examiner shares among patents in electronics, communications, and computer-related fields. Taken together, our findings suggest that firm-level patenting practices, particularly among high-volume applicants, have a strong influence on citation data and merit additional research.     

Selected roles of information goods and services in the U.S. national economy

The study examines selected roles of the information sector in the national economy. Among the findings are the following: (1) the information sector conducts relatively little international trade, in comparison to its domestic activity. Roughly 12% of U.S. exports are attributable to the information sector; over 97% of the sector's output is sold within the U.S.; and the sector's exports account for only a small fraction of 1% of GNP. (2) The historical pattern of employment shows that the portion of information workers has risen from 8% of the U.S. work force in 1870 to 41% in 1970. Relatively little of this growth is the result of new technological innovations such as telephones, radio, television and, more recently, computers. Rather, the growth of public and private bureaucracies, which now total 26% of our total work force, largely explains the growth of the sector. (3) Unemployment within the information sector has consistently been lower than in either the manufacturing or agricultural sectors of the national economy. (4) Since 1967, the high technology elements of the information sector, such as electronic components, computers and telecommunications equipment have experienced appreciably less price rise than has the economy as a whole. However, over the same time period, the service elements of the sector, including finance and insurance, education and medical care, have experienced greater rates of inflation than has the economy as a whole.     

The circulation/acquisition ratio: An input-output measure for libraries

A “quick-and-dirty” input-output measure for libraries is derived using readily available data. The library is defined as a system that acquires books as input and circulates books as output. By simply dividing the number of books circulated per unit time by the number of books acquired in that same time, such a measure is created. Used like a temperature thermometer, the C/A ratio has to be “just right” (not too high and not too low) if the library is to be considered “healthy”.     

人工智能融入美国情报体系的现状及发展困境分析

[目的/意义]人工智能是美国情报界正在推动的重要技术之一,无论是学界还是官方都进行了大量的研究和讨论,分析人工智能融入美国情报体系的现状和发展困境,对未来正确运用人工智能、合理有效规避风险有重要的借鉴价值。[方法/过程]从美国情报界运用人工智能的相关报告和研究成果出发,探究人工智能在不同情报手段中的运用现状,并分析其融入情报界所面临的问题和挑战。[结果/结论]美国情报界对人工智能的研究与运用居于世界前列,不能否认人工智能在情报工作中有较好的应用,但也必须重视其带来的一系列伦理和技术问题。     

Document: Public sector/private sector interaction in providing information services

Abstract

This paper uses an econometric analysis to explore the technology associated with the use of information services in manufacturing industries. A study of the 1972 data for 51 manufacturing industries indicates that the assumption of constant unitary elasticity of substitution between capital and information is probably not appropriate. This causes one to doubt the appropriateness of the Cobb‐Douglas production function to model the relationship between inputs and value added in these industries.

Using production functions more general than the Cobb‐Douglas, estimates of the elasticities of substitution between information and other inputs and of the marginal product of information are obtained. The estimates of the marginal product of information range from 2.3 to 3.7, and are consistent with the Hayes and Erickson conclusion that the firms in these industries underinvest in purchased information.     

Social movements and entrepreneurial activity: A study of the U.S. solar energy industry

We explore how the size of social movements and the ecology of their target industries influence entrepreneurial entry. By leveraging a 14-year panel in the solar energy industry, we demonstrate how a larger social movement stimulates entry. We reveal how this relationship is contingent upon the density of both the focal industry and the industries that are mutually connected to the cause of the movement, as well as the concentration of generalist firms. We demonstrate how larger social movements act in a compensatory role to elicit entry when ecological conditions are least favorable to entry. By uncovering the conditional influence of movements, we contribute to theory at the intersection of social movements and entrepreneurship.     

美国情报界“一体化”的理论与实践

美国情报界的远景是将情报界改革为"情报企业",实现网络化和一体化的目标,就此对美国情报界一体化提出的背景进行剖析,对一体化进程中的理论与实践进行了研究,给出了构想的结构化模型,对其实现目标的关键环节、存在缺陷等进行了深入研究。     

Commercialization strategies of young biotechnology firms: An empirical analysis of the U.S. industry

We studied the commercialization strategies of young biotechnology companies in the United States building on previous studies by assuming that commercialization also includes intermediate forms like hierarchical or bilateral cooperation. Our hypotheses are derived from the Resource-Based View, Transaction Cost Economics, and Property Rights Theory. The results show that the propensity to integrate is related to the appropriability regime, direct capabilities, financial resources, and synergies between the products. Our results show that the Resource-Based View and Property Rights Theory contribute a great deal to explaining commercialization strategies, whereas Transaction Cost Economics explains less.     

The wider impacts of high-technology employment: Evidence from U.S. cities

Innovative, high-technology industries are commonly described as drivers of regional development. ‘Tech’ workers earn high wages, but they are also said to generate knock-on effects throughout the local economies that host them, spurring growth in jobs and wages in nontradable activities. At the same time, in iconic high-tech agglomerations like the San Francisco Bay Area, the home of Silicon Valley, the success of the tech industry creates tensions, in part as living costs rise beyond the reach of many non-tech workers. Across a large sample of U.S. cities, this paper explores these issues systematically. Combining annual data on wages, employment and prices from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Consumer Price Index, it estimates how growth in tradable tech employment affects the real, living-cost deflated wages of local workers in nontradable sectors. Results indicate that high-technology employment has significant, positive, but modest effects on the real wages of workers in nontradable sectors. These effects appear to be spread consistently across different kinds of nontradable activities. In terms of substantive wider impacts, tech appears benign, though fairly ineffectual.     

Explaining the Resurgence of U.S. Competitiveness: The Rise of Wintelism

What explains the resurgence of U.S. international competitiveness in the 1990s? The previous decade can be characterized as one of intense U.S. concern about its declining international competitiveness. In this article, we argue that U.S. industry adopted a new industrial paradigm called "Wintelism" in response to competitive pressures from western Europe and East Asia. The essence of Wintelism is a reliance on open but owned technical standards and extensive outsourcing of component production to enable industrial structures to become less vertically and more horizontally integrated. Countries like the United States that pursued a modified regulatory state approach to structuring state-societal relationships found it easier to adopt this new paradigm than countries that pursued the developmental state approach.     

十大趋势之九:3G技术将使美国无线应用更加落后

迅速席卷亚洲和西欧的3G手机网络让美国的电信运营商们嫉妒得要命，因为美国的电信运营商们错过了发横财的机遇，只能眼睁睁地望着数十亿美元的市场蛋糕离他们而去。3G技术能在手机上播放流媒体，并能下载数据。     

冷战后美国科技政策的走向

冷战后美国政府的科技政策正在逐步离开原来的以国防科研为主，同时兼顾民用科技“副产品”的两用模式，而向以提高经济竞争力为直接目的的科技政策方向发展。