CPB Discussion Paper 348, 4 April 2017

We study knowledge spillovers from European universities and other research organizations using data from patent citations at the EPO. Using matching techniques to construct a sample of control patents, we show that the probability to cite a university patent declines with distance.

In particular, we find a sharp cut-off at around 25 kilometers. For longer distances the probability to cite a university patent is more or less constant. For other research organizations we find no evidence that distance plays a role. Country borders are shown to play an important role in restricting the diffusion of patents of both universities and other research organizations. These results are in line with recent literature for the U.S. and suggest that knowledge spillovers and tacit knowledge are important when using knowledge embodied in university patents.