Science and technology parks and their effects on the quality of tenants’ patents

Abstract

Science and technology parks (STPs) have proliferated in many countries as an innovation policy tool. Several studies have used patent counts to assess their impact on innovation performance rather than the quality of patents, leading to mixed results. The aim of this paper is to explore whether STPs contribute to increasing the quality of patents filed by tenants since patent counts alone do not capture the technological or economic value of the patented inventions. Using a novel database of Spanish patents generated on- and off-park together with firms’ characteristics, we compare the quality of patents filed by firms located inside and outside STPs and find that STPs have a positive effect on the quality of the tenants’ innovative performance. We apply a novel econometric technique to confirm that our results are robust to omitted variable bias and explore possible channels through which STPs produce an effect on patent quality, such as by facilitating collaboration, increasing collaboration with universities, and fostering the internationalisation of inventions.