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Independent invention in I taly during the Liberal Age, 1861–1913
Author(s) -
Nuvolari Alessandro,
Vasta Michelangelo
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/ehr.12087
Subject(s) - legislation , quality (philosophy) , phenomenon , benchmark (surveying) , business , economics , industrial organization , law , political science , geography , philosophy , epistemology , geodesy
This article examines the phenomenon of independent invention in I taly during the L iberal A ge (1861–1913). It makes use of a new dataset comprising all patents granted in I taly in five benchmark years: 1864–5, 1881, 1891, 1902, and 1911. The following exercises are carried out. First, an examination is undertaken of the shares of independent, corporate, and foreign inventions and their evolution over time and across industries. Second, by exploiting the peculiarities of Italian patent legislation, which was characterized by relatively cheap fees and a flexible renewal scheme, the relative quality of independent and corporate patents is assessed. The results indicate that in Italy independent inventors made an important contribution to technological change in terms of number of patents, but the quality of their patents was significantly lower than that of firms and of foreign patentees.