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Patenting and the supply of inventive ideas in colonial Australia: evidence from Victorian patent data
Author(s) -
Magee Gary B.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
australian economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.493
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1467-8446
pISSN - 0004-8992
DOI - 10.1111/aehr.362002
Subject(s) - colonialism , diversification (marketing strategy) , supply side , patent office , technological change , supply and demand , subject (documents) , demand side , economics , economic geography , history , economy , economic history , political science , business , market economy , law , marketing , macroeconomics , library science , computer science
One of the least studied aspects of Australian economic history is technological change. This article addresses the subject by using patent statistics from nineteenth–century Victoria to examine the determinants of the supply of inventive ideas in the late colonial era. Such an examination indicates that, while both demand– and supply–side features clearly had roles to play in influencing the volume of ideas that emerged, it was the expansion and diversification of Australian markets in the latter half of the century that was most important. These findings also suggest that development and introduction of new technological ideas in pre–Federation Australia were predominantly economic activities shaped by local considerations.