Inventive activities, patents and early industrialization. A synthesis of research issues

Transcription

1 Inventive activities, patents and early industrialization. A synthesis of research issues Christine MacLeod (University of Bristol) Alessandro Nuvolari (Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies)

2 Patents and the Industrial Revolution "..Innovation will be encouraged by modifying the institutional environment, so that the private rate of return approaches the social rate of return...the development of patent laws provides such protection...by 17...England had begun to protect private property in knowledge with its patent law. The stage was now set for the industrial revolution." [D. North and R. Thomas (1973), The Rise of the Western World] "A number of writers have laid stress on the incentive effect of patent legislation. I am inclined to doubt its significance..." [David S. Landes (1969), The Unbound Prometheus]

3 H. Dutton (1984) and R. Sullivan (1989,199) Early British patent system was cumbersome and very imperfect (by modern standards) Notwithstanding this, it DID stimulate inventors to invent Emergence of an "infant invention industry" and "quasiprofessional" inventors On balance, not very far from ideal (invention+diffusion)! MacLeod (1988) is much more cautious! Heterodox uses of the patent system (recognition, advertisement, etc.) Significance of inventive activity carried out outside the system

4 Patents and Inventive Activities Inventions Patents

5 British Steam Engineering patents, Source: MacLeod et al. (23)

6 The US Patent System and Inventive Activities (Sokoloff, Lamoreaux & Khan) First modern patent system was the American one, not the British! Democratic (low cost of access, the British was very expensive) Full disclosure (patentee must provide detailed specifications, Examination system introduced in 1836) 1) Powerful stimulus to inventive activities (by 181s patenting per capita is higher in USA thank in UK) 2) Creation of well-functioning "Market for Technologies" (based on specialized intermediaries and journals). Seemingly, technological knowledge was not difficult to trade! 3) "Almost optimal" division of innovative labour

7 Khan & Sokoloff and the "Great Inventor" Approach Two Samples: 16 "Great" inventors active in the period and 49 for the period "Great" = mentioned in authoritative biographical dictionaries (eg, Dictionary of American Biography) 15 inventors in the first sample were patentees (in total they received 1,178 patents) Mainly "insiders" to the industry of their major invention (knowledge of specific market needs or technological shortcomings) They systematically and persistently used the patent system to appropriate the economic returns of their inventions, also through the market for technologies

8 MacLeod and Nuvolari (26) They replicate Khan and Sokoloff for Britain. They use as source the Dictionary of National Biography (most authoritative and iconic work of collective biography) 63 volumes, published in It was meant to provide full, accurate and concise biographies of all noteworthy inhabitants of the British Islands 29,12 entries covering all men and women of British or Irish race who have achieved any reasonable measure of distinction in any walk of life [Women represent 4%!]

9 Patenting behaviour of the DNB "Great Inventors" Table 1: Patents held by all patentees and by the inventors in the DNB Number of patents All Patentees [ ] (%) DNB Total Sample [ ] (%) (39.43) Alleged patentees - 31 (DNB) (8.9) 1 6,1 7 (73.49) (18.28) (23.58) (19.32) (2.29) (8.62) > (.65) (6.27) Total 8, (1) (1) DNB Birth cohort [165-17] (%) 19 (67.86) () 6 (21.43) 3 (1.71) () () 28 (1) DNB Birth cohort [ ] (%) 29 (4.28) () 2 (27.78) 18 (25) 2 (2.78) 3 (4.17) 72 (1) DNB Birth cohort [ ] (%) 68 (4.24) 2 (1.18) 28 (16.57) 37 (21.89) 2 (11.83) 14 (8.28) 169 (1) MacLeod and Nuvolari (25) DNB Birth cohort [ ] (%) 35 (3.7) 29 (25.44) 16 ( (14.4) 11 (9.65) 7 (6.14) 114 (1)

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11 Petra Moser (25) and the Crystal Palace Exhibition

12 Collective Invention (R. Allen, 1983) Case study of blast furnaces in the Cleveland (UK) iron industry ( )...[I]f a firm constructed a new plant of novel design and that plant proved to have lower costs than other plants, these facts were made available to other firms in the industry and to potential entrants. The next firm constructing a new plant build on the experience of the first by introducing and extending the design change that had proved profitable. The operating characteristics of the second plant would then also be made available to potential investors. In this way fruitful lines of technical advance were identified and pursued.

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14 Duty of Cornish Engines,

15 Geographical distribution of British steam engine patents, Source: Nuvolari (24)

16 Important Cornish inventions in steam engineering (non patented) RichardTrevithick Cornishengine design Arthur Woolf double beat valve Samuel Grose thermal lagging Richard Hosking boiler water gauge Hocking & Loam cylinder cushion...plus many others

17 The historical significance of collective invention Allen (1983): Cleveland (UK) blast furnaces Nuvolari (24): Cornish Steam Engine "Western" Steamboat (first major contribution of US to Western technology) : Hunter 1949 Lyon silk industry: Foray & Hilaire Perez (25) Berkshire (US) Paper Making (McGaw, 1987)

18 CONCLUSIONS (1) Problems with Khan, Sokoloff and Lamoreaux interpretation of the role of the patent system in the early phases of industrialization: - Most of their evidence on inventive activities is based on patents - Great inventors evidence is problematic. - Little attention to alternative to patents: collective invention, but also patronage (eg, Longitude Act) and procurement (Block making machinery)

19 Conclusions (2) Industrial Revolution as a "knowledge revolution" (Mokyr, 22): Change in the procedures of accumulation and diffusion of "useful knowledge" Patent system was a critical component of this transition? Many shreds of evidence suggest to be very cautious. The nature of the transition seems to have wider and deeper roots (scientific revolution, accumulation of bodies of engineering knowledge etc.) Further research: focus on inventive activities in specific sectors or technological fields, trying to measure the signifcance of what was not covered by patents