Determinantes da capacidade de absorção e dos transbordamentos de conhecimento regional sob a ótica dos dados de patentes

Abstract

The diffusion of knowledge occurs and impacts firms, sectors, or regions unequally. Economic literature deals with this dynamic in all its dimensions to understand the innovative process and, in this context, the knowledge absorptive capacity seems to be the key factor to be analyzed. Patent data allow this analysis to be carried out, as they are a proxy for the production and spillovers of knowledge and, therefore, point to how this diffusion occurs, in time and space. This work explores the possibilities given by the patent data, divided into 3 chapters. In the first chapter, a measure based on patent citations is used as a proxy for regional absorptive capacity, and its determinants are analyzed. As a method, a panel data model with fixed effects is used. The results indicate that regions that generate basic knowledge have a greater capacity to absorb and exploit external knowledge. In the second chapter, the regional lock-in process is studied using direct patent self-citations, employing the negative binomial model for counting data. The results indicate that regions that carry out proportionally more self-citations may be in a damaging process of knowledge myopia or, on the other hand, are specialized leaders in certain technological areas. In the third chapter, spatial and network econometric techniques are used to identify the role of knowledge spillovers from nearby and distant regions in the production of knowledge in Brazil. The results show the positive role of localized spillovers and the high influence of the spillovers from distant regions. In that sense, it was possible to explore and advance on how the dynamics of knowledge spillovers occur, focusing on the regional absorptive capacity.