Working Paper #2023-036
Technologies fly on the wings of science: Exploring the role of science in technologies’ spatial evolution
This paper investigates how science affects the geographical evolution of technological trajectories. We define a technological trajectory as a series of inventions re-using the same technology, and we follow the geographical development of trajectories by geo-localizing inventors. Following 10,782 trajectories, we find that technologies with a high scientific content travel longer distances and are more likely to generate new inventors’ clusters than technologies with low scientific content, especially in their growth and maturity phases.
- Keywords
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- Patents
- Technological trajectories
- Geographical evolution
- Scientific content
- JEL codes
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- O30
- O33
Cite this as
APA 7th ed.Pezzoni, M., Vleugelers, R., & Visentin, F. (2023). Technologies fly on the wings of science: Exploring the role of science in technologies’ spatial evolution (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2023-036). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=9630