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Table 8 Technological improvement rates and breakthrough innovations: different time spans of forward citations

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

Dependent variables

FWD90_5

FWD90_7

FWD90_10

Model

(1)

(2)

(3)

Variables

Digital

1.863***

1.868***

1.770***

(0.428)

(0.592)

(0.607)

Control variables

inv

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num_ctry

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\(\checkmark\)

Claims

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bwd_cits

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\(\checkmark\)

Fixed effects

Industry

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Year

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Year-Industry

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Observations

3,714,719

3,714,719

3,714,719

  1. All estimations include USPTO patents of the filing years 1990–2010 if at least one inventor has been from Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK, or the USA. To better compare the results with the specification in the main text, the first specification (1) indicates a breakthrough innovation if the number of a patent’s five-year forward citations is among the top 10% per publication year and WIPO technology field. The estimation results differ slightly from those in the main text, as we only include patents up to 2010, in order to be able to use longer forward citation spans in the other two specifications. The second specification (2) indicates a breakthrough innovation if the number of a patent’s seven years forward citations is among the top 10% and the third (3) specification if the number of a patent’s 10-year forward citations is among the top 10%. In order to show associations in percentage points, we have multiplied the FWD/IMP-dummies by 100. The industry fixed effects are at the level of the six industries included in the interaction terms. The industry fixed effects are at the level of the six industries included in the analysis, namely Computer/ICT, Machinery, Medical, Electrical, Chemical, and Pharma. The standard errors in parentheses are also clustered at this industry level. Significance levels for the coefficients are indicated as: \(p^*<0.1\); \(p^{**}<0.05\); \(p^{***}<0.01\)