The Dynamics of Patent Citations
by Alan C. Marco (November 2006)
The use of patent citations as a measure of patent “quality” increased dramatically in recent years. I estimate the hazard of patent citation, and find evidence of unobserved heterogeneity. Hazard estimation provides a means to separate patent quality from citation “inflation.”
Keywords: patents, patent citations, hazard rate, duration. JEL: C1, O3.