Patents, exhibitions and markets for innovation in the early twentieth century: Evidence from Turin 1911 International Exhibition
Giacomo Domini
#2016-061
This work contributes to the recent literature on international
exhibitions, and on the use of data from these events as a proxy for
innovation in economic history. In particular, it investigates the
nature of international exhibitions, the role they played in the early
twentieth century, the reasons why economic agents attended them, the
relationship between exhibition data and patent data, and their
suitability for measuring innovation. To do so, it makes an in-depth
analysis of the International Exhibition held in Turin in 1911, and it
matches a new database, built from the catalogue of this event, with
data about patents granted in Italy. It is found that exhibiting and
patenting did mostly occur separately, as exhibitions mainly worked as
markets for products, which attracted firms, while patents were
primarily taken out by individuals, most of whom might not be interested
in that function. Yet, the presence is observed of a qualified niche of
independent inventors, using the exhibition as a market for ideas, i.e.
to advertise their findings to a selected public of potential investors,
buyers or licensees.
Keywords: patents, international exhibitions, markets for innovation,
Italy
JEL Classification: N74, O31, O33