Lunch Seminar in presence

Building BL26/B – Room 0.19 (ground floor)
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Via R. Lambruschini, 4/B

Rainer Widmann
Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany

Abstract:

Patents are essential for disclosing knowledge, yet this disclosure often falls short of enabling the knowledge to be practically implemented and used for cumulative innovation. Firms depend on employees with tacit knowledge or specific skills to effectively leverage others’ ideas. This study examines the impact of expanding Swiss firms’ access to the German labor market on the transfer of knowledge developed in Germany to Switzerland.
The focus is on the effects of a 2002 reform, which removed the hiring restrictions that Swiss firms previously faced in recruiting German cross-border commuters. Findings indicate that after the implementation of the reform, German patents from areas near the Swiss-German border received more citations from Swiss applicants. Additionally, there is a noted increase in the number of new Swiss patents that are textually similar to patents from the German border region.
Knowledge diffusion effects are especially significant for cumulative innovations that are at an intermediate technological distance from the original German inventions, characterized by introducing at least one new technological field while sharing at least one field in common. Furthermore, the study reveals that these effects are more pronounced in fields where Switzerland is relatively closer to the knowledge frontier than the German regions.

Rainer Widmann is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. His research concentrates on innovation policy within the European sphere, delving into the economics of science and the organization of innovation. Widmann has previously explored the interplay between labor market access and knowledge diffusion, inventor location choices in relation to local top income tax rates, and the influence of research grants on firm innovation. His studies have also covered the reactions of coders to competitive pressures in online coding contests, and the repercussions of the unexpected passing of a faculty member on the career trajectories of postdocs and graduate students. His current work is investigating the effects of the aging inventor population in firms on innovation, as well as the progression of inventors’ careers within a firm post-patent filing, with a special emphasis on team dynamics.

Please click here to register.