ABS: Trajtenberg, Innovation in Israel 1968-1997: a comparativeanalysis using patent data

[Gretchen Whitney]

> Author's email address: manuel at ccsg.tau.ac.il
>
> TITLE:          Innovation in Israel 1968-1997: a comparative analysis
>                 using patent data (Article, English)
> AUTHOR:         Trajtenberg, M
> SOURCE:         RESEARCH POLICY 30 (3). MAR 2001. p.363-389 ELSEVIER
>                 SCIENCE BV, AMSTERDAM
>
> KEYWORDS:       patents; citations; Israeli economy; high-tech
> KEYWORDS+:       UNIVERSITIES; CITATIONS
>
> ABSTRACT:       The Israeli high-tech sector is widely regarded as a
> hotbed of cutting-edge technologies, and as the growth engine of the
> Israeli economy in the 1990s and beyond. In this paper we present a close-
> up portrait of innovation in Israel for the past 30 years, with the aid
> of highly detailed patent data. We use for that purpose ail Israeli
> patents taken in the US (over 7000), as well as US patents and patents
> from other countries for comparative purposes. The time path of Israeli
> patenting reveals big jumps in the mid 1980s and then again in the early
> 1990s, reflecting underlying "shocks" in policy and in the availability
> of relevant inputs. Israeli ranks high in terms of patents per capita,
> compared to the G7, the "Asian Tigers" and a group of countries with
> similar GDP per capita. Finland is strikingly similar, Taiwan's patenting
> has grown extremely fast and is now on par with Israel, South Korea is
> rapidly closing the gap. The technological composition of Israeli
> innovations reflects quite well worldwide technological trends, except
> that Computers and Communications, the fastest growing field in the US,
> has grown even faster in Israel. The weak side resides in the composition
> of Israeli assignees, the actual owners of the intellectual property
> rights: just 35% of Israeli patents were assigned to Israeli
> corporations, a much lower percentage than in most other countries.
> Relatively large shares went to foreign assignees, to Universities and
> the Government, and to private inventors. On the other hand, Israeli
> patents are of good "quality" in terms of citations received (and getting
> better over time): US patents command on average more citations, but not
> in Computers and Communications or in Biotechnology, and Israeli patents
> are significantly better than those of the reference group of countries.
> (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
>
> AUTHOR ADDRESS: M Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv Univ, Eitan Berlgas Sch Econ,
> NBER,
>                 IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
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