U.S. Patent Data, 1926-2010
This data was collected for the paper:
Kogan, L., Papanikolaou, D., Seru, A. and Stoffman, N., 2017. Technological innovation, resource allocation, and growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(2), pp. 665-712.

A detailed description of the data is provided in the paper and the online appendix. If you use these data please cite the paper.

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The three files in the data are described below. All files are zipped .csv files. If you have questions about the data feel free to email Noah Stoffman at nstoffma@iu.edu.

patents_xi.zip

Patent-level data. Sample covers all utility patents issued by the USPTO between 1/1/1926 and 11/02/2010.

Variable name
Definition
patnum
patent number
fdate
filing date of patent (mm/dd/yyyy)
idate
issue (grant) date of patent (mm/dd/yyyy)
pdate
publication date of patent (mm/dd/yyyy)
permno
CRSP permno
class
technology class
subclass
technology subclass
ncites
number of citations
xi
ξ\xi as defined in equation (3) of the paper, in millions of dollars (nominal). As in the paper, we use π¯=0.56\bar{\pi}=0.56 and δ=1e0.0146\delta =1-e^{-0.0146}.

In the paper we convert to real using the CPIAUCNS series (annualized by taking monthly average).

firm_innovation.zip

Firm-level innovation measures by year
Variable name
Definition
permno
CRSP permno
year
year
Npats
number of patents for firm-year
Tcw
Θcw\Theta^{cw}, defined in equation (9) of the paper
Tsm
Θsm\Theta^{sm}, defined in equation (8) of the paper
tcw
θcw\theta^{cw}, defined in equation (10) of the paper
tsm
θsm\theta^{sm}, defined in equation (10) of the paper
  • Θsm\Theta^{sm} and Θcw\Theta^{cw} are in millions of nominal dollars
  • θm,m{cw,sm}\theta^{m}, m\in\{cw,sm\} is the simple ratio of Θm\Theta^{m} to firm assets using the Compustat variable at, and only available beginning in 1950. To get it to the same scale as what is presented in Table 3 of the paper, multiply by 100. Note however, that Table 3 is calculated after winsorizing with annual breakpoints, and on the complete sample of firms, including those without patents.

cites.zip

Patent-level citations

Variable name
Definition
citing
patent number of the patent that cites another patent
cited
patent number of the cited patent