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Table 15 Technological improvement rates and breakthrough innovations: heterogeneity between the digital and non-digital domain

From: Digital technologies, technological improvement rates, and innovations “Made in Switzerland”

Dependent variable

FWD90

Model

(1)

(2)

Variables

Digital

2.991*** (0.691)

 

k

0.148*** (0.022)

 

Digital: k

− 0.125*** (0.023)

 

Digital: Chemical

 

8.035*** (0.704)

Digital: Computer/ICT

 

2.062*** (0.232)

Digital: Electrical

 

6.985*** (0.391)

Digital: Machinery

 

1.260*** (0.254)

Digital: Medical

 

7.333*** (0.690)

Digital: Pharma

 

1.501*** (0.431)

k:Chemical

 

0.191*** (0.021)

k:Computer/ICT

 

0.086*** (0.017)

k:Electrical

 

0.415*** (0.030)

k:Machinery

 

0.167*** (0.016)

k:Medical

 

0.227*** (0.044)

k:Pharma

 

0.087**  (0.039)

Digital: k:Chemical

 

− 0.196*** (0.024)

Digital: k:Computer/ICT

 

− 0.067*** (0.012)

Digital: k:Electrical

 

− 0.290*** (0.036)

Digital: k:Machinery

 

− 0.128*** (0.014)

Digital: k:Medical

 

− 0.207*** (0.042)

Digital: k:Pharma

 

− 0.028 (0.037)

Control variables

inv

\(\checkmark\)

\(\checkmark\)

num_ctry

\(\checkmark\)

\(\checkmark\)

Claims

\(\checkmark\)

\(\checkmark\)

bwd_cits

\(\checkmark\)

\(\checkmark\)

Fixed effects

Industry

\(\checkmark\)

\(\checkmark\)

Year

\(\checkmark\)

\(\checkmark\)

Year-Industry

\(\checkmark\)

\(\checkmark\)

Observations

4,259,239

3,243,802

  1. All estimations include USPTO patents from Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA of the filing years 1990–2015. If a patent has inventors from more than one of those countries, it will only take into account once. The first model specification shows estimations across all industries. The second considers interactions for selected industries. In order to show associations in percentage points, we have multiplied the FWD90-dummy by 100. The industry fixed effects are at the level of the six industries included in the interaction terms. The standard errors in parentheses are also clustered at this industry level. Significance levels for the coefficients are indicated as: \(p^*<0.1\); \(p^{**}<0.05\); \(p^{***}<0.01\)