Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • June 2022
  • Article
  • Review of Financial Studies

The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Finance and Beyond

By: Josh Lerner and Amit Seru
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Patents and citations are powerful tools for understanding innovation increasingly used in financial economics (and management research more broadly). Biases may result, however, from the interactions between the truncation of patents and citations and the changing composition of inventors. When aggregated at the firm level, these patent and citation biases can survive popular adjustment methods and are correlated with firm characteristics. These issues can lead to problematic inferences. We provide an actionable checklist to avoid biased inferences and also suggest machine learning as a potential new way to address these problems.

Keywords

Patents; Analytics and Data Science; Corporate Finance; Research

Citation

Lerner, Josh, and Amit Seru. "The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Finance and Beyond." Review of Financial Studies 35, no. 6 (June 2022): 2667–2704.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Josh Lerner

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • May 2022
    • Journal of Political Economy

    When Harry Fired Sally: The Double Standard in Punishing Misconduct

    By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru
    • April 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Shanghai Pudong Science and Technology Investment Co., Ltd.: December 2014

    By: Josh Lerner
    • March 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Hollie Haynes: An Unanticipated Crossroads

    By: Josh Lerner
More from the Authors
  • When Harry Fired Sally: The Double Standard in Punishing Misconduct By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru
  • Shanghai Pudong Science and Technology Investment Co., Ltd.: December 2014 By: Josh Lerner
  • Hollie Haynes: An Unanticipated Crossroads By: Josh Lerner
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College