Collection of Public Goods

Working with Patent Data for Innovation Research

  • General references on patent data:
    • Hall, Bronwyn H., Adam B. Jaffe, and Manuel Trajtenberg, "The NBER patent citation data file: Lessons, insights and methodological tools" (2001).
    • Lerner, Josh, and Amit Seru, "The use and misuse of patent data: Issues for finance and beyond." The Review of Financial Studies 35.6 (2022): 2667-2704.
  • PatentsView
    • USPTO patent data (1976-present) with rich information on patents, inventors, assignees, and citations
  • NBER Patent Data Project
    • USPTO patent data (1976-2006), the historical workhorse dataset
    • Reference:
      • Hall, Bronwyn H., Adam B. Jaffe, and Manuel Trajtenberg, "The NBER patent citation data file: Lessons, insights and methodological tools" (2001).
  • Ma (2025, RFS) PatentsView to Compustat/CRSP Firm-Name Match
    • Links USPTO PatentsView patents (1976-present) to Compustat NA/Global and CRSP public-firm identifiers, plus a set of patent measures (counts/stock, citations, originality/generality, exploitative/explorative, obsolescence)
    • References for the linkage and obsolescence measure:
      • Ma, Song, "Technological obsolescence." The Review of Financial Studies (2025): hhaf059.
      • Ma, Song, "The life cycle of corporate venture capital." The Review of Financial Studies 33.1 (2020): 358-394.
    • Reference for originality/generality:
      • Hall, Bronwyn H., Adam B. Jaffe, and Manuel Trajtenberg, "The NBER patent citation data file: Lessons, insights and methodological tools" (2001).
    • References for exploitative/explorative:
      • Manso, Gustavo, "Motivating innovation." The Journal of Finance 66.5 (2011): 1823-1860.
      • Almeida, Heitor, Po-Hsuan Hsu, and Dongmei Li, "Less is more: Financial constraints and innovative efficiency." SSRN Working Paper (2013).
      • Custódio, Cláudia, Miguel A. Ferreira, and Pedro Matos, "Do general managerial skills spur innovation?" Management Science 65.2 (2019): 459-476.
  • KPSS (2017, QJE) Patent Value
    • Market-reaction-based patent value, linking patents (1926-present) to CRSP public-firm identifiers
    • Reference:
      • Kogan, Leonid, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Amit Seru, and Noah Stoffman, "Technological innovation, resource allocation, and growth." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 132.2 (2017): 665-712.
  • KPST (2021, AERI) Breakthrough Patents
    • Text-based patent breakthrough and importance measures
    • Reference:
      • Kelly, Bryan, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Amit Seru, and Matt Taddy, "Measuring technological innovation over the long run." American Economic Review: Insights 3.3 (2021): 303-320.
  • Global Corporate Patent Dataset
    • Links USPTO PatentsView patents (1976-present) to Compustat NA/Global identifiers
    • References:
      • Bena, Jan, Miguel A. Ferreira, Pedro Matos, and Pedro Pires, "Are foreign investors locusts? The long-term effects of foreign institutional ownership." Journal of Financial Economics 126.1 (2017): 122-146.
      • Barkemeyer, David, Jan Bena, and Xiyue (Ellen) Li, "Technology life cycles: Investment, growth, and firm value." SSRN Working Paper (2026).
  • Process Innovation Patent Dataset
    • Process vs. product innovation classification for patents
    • Reference:
      • Bena, Jan, and Elena Simintzi, "Machines could not compete with Chinese labor: Evidence from US firms' innovation." Review of Finance 29.6 (2025): 1619-1661.
  • Founding Patents Data
    • Founding years for US-based patent assignees
  • Reliance on Science
    • Patent-to-paper citations linking patents to the scientific literature
    • References:
      • Marx, Matt, and Aaron Fuegi, "Reliance on science by inventors: Hybrid extraction of in-text patent-to-article citations." Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 31.2 (2022): 369-392.
      • Marx, Matt, and Aaron Fuegi, "Reliance on science: Worldwide front-page patent citations to scientific articles." Strategic Management Journal 41.9 (2020): 1572-1594.

Working with AI Tools for Economics/Finance Research