Can We Learn About Innovation From Patent Data?

Welcome to patents week! I set out to write a post about using patents to measure innovation, but it turned into four. I'm releasing podcasts of each episode, one per day, but if you're too excited to wait, you can read all four here, on New Things Under the Sun.

1. How many inventions are patented? Less than half, more than zero
2. Patents (weakly) predict innovation: Correlations between patents and other proxies for innovation
3. Do studies based on patents get different results? For the sample on New Things Under the Sun, not really
4. Can we learn about innovation from patent data? The definitive New Things Under the Sun Post

This podcast covers #4: Can We Learn About Innovation From Patent Data?