Industrial Organization Commons^™

Essays On Innovation And Consumer Credit, David E. Fieldhouse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the first chapter, I show that the economy’s production structure plays an important role in determining innovation. In particular, using patent data I document a set of empirical facts that are initially puzzling, but can be explained by recognizing that innovation decisions are related between sectors. A model is developed to explain the empirical findings, but it also has an important finding for the current debate on U.S. patent policy. I use the model to demonstrate that a perceived long-run decline could be explained by increased innovative opportunities in certain industries and the responses of inventors in other sectors …