På svenska
Olof Ejermo
Associate Professor in Innovation Economics, PhD, Docent
Presently my research is geared towards the study of Swedish inventors where I head a project for the Swedish research council (VR) running 2012-2014 involving Högni Kalsö Hansen (Copenhagen University) and Tayjeun Jung (CIRCLE). Inventors can be a highly detailed source of micro data, relatively less studied in the area of innovation, where policy mechanisms such as education and research policy may reveal effects on inventive activity.
The part and parcel of the project lies in the construction of an excellent source of data on inventors: individuals matched to register data. A first project where this idea was implemented was a pilot for the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis. I managed to link to registers as many as 64% of Swedish inventors listed on European Office Patent records for the period 1978-2009. The resulting report is available here: http://tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/working_paper-pm/article0034.html
This report discusses education levels, inventors by sector, age, gender among other statistics.
For the project for VR we have now been able to reach a match rate of 79%, the material comprising about 22,000 unique inventors. As the material has a high match rate over time, and through the connection to register data, we are able to make fairly general statements about inventors over time and geographical space for Sweden. This data collection effort will in the VR project be used to analyze:
- the distribution of inventors across Swedish higher education institutions in the role as employees. Sweden, as one of few remaining countries in Europe, retains the Professor’s privilege according to which owner rights to patents resides with the employee rather than with their university. We will get to learn about the presence of inventors over time and education institution.
- inventors by exam origin. We will present data on the impact of higher education institutions in the form of former students.
- we will study where particular regional milieus have been specifically powerful in impacting on regional inventiveness in the nexus between higher education and businesses
- we will study the role of inventive entrepreneurship in the sense of businesses started where inventors are active
The inventor data are also in use to study:
- cycles in inventive entrepreneurship (with Jing Xiao and Martin Andersson)
- productivity and mobility of Swedish inventors (with Lina Ahlin)
- the profile of Swedish inventors (with Taehyun Jung)
- teams of inventors and inventor productivity (with Taehyun Jung)
For my other research, I have published articles (or have papers in the pipeline) on the relationship between R&D and business sectors, the relationship in terms of trends in patent productivity in Swedish sectors. I have also investigated regional links between R&D, patenting and growth. For some of these issues I have developed quality-adjusted measures of patenting, on regional and sector levels.
Recent work published or accepted for publication
My three most recent finished works are (full list of publications in my CV):
- Ejermo, O. and Gråsjö, U. (2011), Invention, innovation and regional growth in Swedish regions, Forthcoming In Johansson, B., Karlsson, C. and Stough, R. (Eds.): Innovation, Technology and Knowledge: Their Role in Economic Development, London: Routledge
- Ejermo, O., A. Kander and M. Svensson Henning (2011), “The R&D-growth paradox arises in fast-growing sectors, “ Research Policy, 40(5), 664-672
- Ejermo, O. and A. Kander (2011), “Swedish business research productivity, “Industrial and Corporate Change, published online: May 24, 2011
Recent work submitted for publication
- Bergman, K. and O. Ejermo (2011) A study of the dependence on trade for Swedish Business R&D (submitted to a journal) available as CIRCLE electronic working paper 2011/05 CIRCLE electronic working papers
Last modified 16 Feb 2012
