Research and Development

Slow growth over the last decade has prompted policy attention towards increasing R&D spending, often via the tax system.

A “patent box” is a term for the application of a lower corporate tax rate to the income derived from the ownership of patents. This tax subsidy instrument has been introduced in a number of countries since 2000. Using comprehensive data on patent filings at the European Patent Office, including information on ownership transfers pre‐ and post‐grant, we investigate the impact of the introduction of a patent box on international patent transfers, on the choice of ownership location, and on invention in the relevant country.

We provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of the Intellectual Property (IP) Box regimes in place in Europe.

We estimate of the impact offshoring inventors has on firms' use of inventors at home using within firm variation across industries.

This is a response to the UK Government's consultation on the introduction and implementation of a Patent Box.

In this paper we provide evidence that the growth in Chinese patenting activity has been accompanied by a growth in Chinese inventors creating technologies that are near to the science base.

This report is evidence submitted to the Institute for Public Policy Research in response to a call for evidence on the 'future of globalisation'.

We examine the "home bias" of knowledge spillovers (the idea that knowledge spreads more slowly over international boundaries than within them) as measured by the speed of patent citations.