COWLES FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH IN ECONOMICS
AT YALE UNIVERSITY

Box 208281
New Haven, CT 06520-8281

COWLES FOUNDATION DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 862

"Appropriating the Returns from Industrial R&D"

Richard C. Levin, Alvin K. Klevorick, Richard R. Nelson and Sidney G. Winter

February 1988

In this paper, we describe the results of an inquiry into the nature of appropriability conditions in over one hundred manufacturing industries, and we discuss how this information has been and might be used to cast light on important issues in the economics of innovation and public policy. Our data, derived from a survey of high-level R&D executives, are informed opinions about the nature of an industry’s technological and economic environment rather than quantitative measures of inputs and outputs.

JEL Classification: 621, 612

Keywords: R&D, technological game, innovation, patents, public policy