Research
I have worked on research projects that are relevant to both policy and practice at the intersection of economics, strategy, and innovation policy. My research focuses on using data and econometrics methodologies to understand how to promote innovation to our society.
- Publication
COVID-19: Insights from innovation economists, with George Abi Younes, Charles Ayoubi, Omar Ballester, Gabriele Cristelli, Gaétan de Rassenfosse, Dominique Foray, Patrick Gaulé, Gabriele Pellegrino, Matthias van den Heuvel, Elizabeth Webster, (2020) Science and Public Policy . Coverage in VoxEU.
- Working papers
Patents and Supra-Competitive Prices: Evidence from Consumer Products, with Gaétan de Rassenfosse, submitted.
The raison d'être of the patent system is to incentivize R&D investments. The prospect of monopolistic pricing conferred by patent protection supposedly encourages firms to innovate. However, there is scant empirical evidence supporting the existence of higher markups for patent-protected products. Using an original dataset that links a broad range of consumer products to the patents that protect them, we study the impact of patent protection on product prices. The empirical strategy exploits exogenous variations in patent status, namely the fall of the patent in the public domain after the statutory 20-year term limit is reached. We find that a loss of patent protection leads to a 7--8 percent drop in product prices. The price drop, which starts about one year before patent expiry, is larger for more important patents and is more pronounced in more competitive product markets.
Media coverage in Innovation Growth Lab.
Public Notice and Invention Diffusion, with Gaétan de Rassenfosse and Wolf-Hendrik Uhlbach
Does Motherhood Hold Back 'Marie Curies'? The Impact of Maternity Leave Policy on Female Inventors, with Mary Kaltenberg