As part of the Vilfredo Pareto Research Seminar series, the International Economics Department at the Graduate Institute is pleased to invite you to the public talk

The effect of standardization on patents: a machine learning approach, given by Petyo Bonev (coauthored with Maddalena Agnoli, Ecole des Mines).

Petyo Bonev is Professor of Econometrics at the Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research, University of St. Gallen. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Mannheim, Germany. His main research interest is in the area of microeconometrics. He works on topics such as dynamic treatment evaluation and duration analysis, with a strong taste for nonparametric methods. Prior to his academic career, he gathered professional experience at the Boston Consulting Group, KPMG AG, Wüstenrot AG, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, and the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW).

Abstract: In this study, we estimate the effect of standardization on innovation. A major difficulty arises because innovation itself potentially impacts innovation, which leads to reverse causality. To deal with the resulting endogeneity, apply machine learning methods to predict counterfactual innovation paths. Our identification strategy exploits unpredictable standards, i.e. standards that could not be foreseen by the market. For the affected technologies, we use innovation history to predict what the amount of patents would have been in the case of no standards. We find a positive effect of standardization on subsequent patenting activity, but no effect on patent quality.

The Vilfredo Pareto Research Seminar invites researchers to present their latest work. The seminar takes place on Tuesdays, early afternoons. The organizer for this academic year is Prof.  Julia Cajal-Grossi.