publications

Publications in peer-reviewed journals

1. Patents and Knowledge Diffusion: The Impact of Machine Translation

   Benjamin Büttner, Murat Firat, and Emilio Raiteri

   Research Policy, Jul 2022

   Abs DOI Bib

   One of the main rationales for the existence of the patent system is to encourage knowledge diffusion through the full disclosure of the technical knowledge embodied in a patented invention. Yet, economists and legal scholars cast doubts on the validity of the disclosure theory. The empirical evidence on the actual benefits of the disclosure function remains limited. The present paper aims to expand our understanding of how information spreads via patent disclosure and exploits recent improvements in machine translation (MT) to identify the effect of broader access to patented knowledge. More specifically, the paper uses a unique natural experiment. In September 2013, Google launched a major upgrade to its Google Patents service and added patent applications from the China National Intellectual Property Agency (CNIPA) to its searchable patent database. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we show that the translation of the Chinese patents into English resulted in an increase in citations received from patents filed by US inventors compared to a suitable control group comprising patents that Google translated only in 2016. Our results suggest that improved access to patented knowledge fosters knowledge diffusion.

   @article{buttner2022,
     title = {Patents and Knowledge Diffusion: The Impact of Machine Translation},
     shorttitle = {Patents and Knowledge Diffusion},
     author = {Büttner, Benjamin and Firat, Murat and Raiteri, Emilio},
     year = {2022},
     month = jul,
     journal = {Research Policy},
     volume = {51},
     number = {10},
     pages = {104584},
     issn = {0048-7333},
     doi = {10.1016/j.respol.2022.104584},
     urldate = {2025-05-07},
     langid = {english},
     dimensions = {false},
   }

2. Deriving Experience Curves: A Structured and Critical Approach Applied to PV Sector

   Prapti Maharjan, Mara Hauck, Arjan Kirkels, Benjamin Büttner, and Heleen de Coninck

   Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Oct 2024

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   Experience curves are widely used for cost estimates in energy-economy models and are proposed as a forecasting tool for projecting the future environmental impact of emerging technologies. However, further application is limited by data availability and methodological challenges related to modelling the dynamic relationship between cost, different kinds of learning, and scale effects. This paper systematically compares existing experience curves using empirical data from the PV sector. We compare the cost forecast of the assessed experience curves, derive the learning rates over different periods, and draw parallels to the environmental experience curve. Our results show that the single-factor experience curve (SEFC) is the most stable model, showing consistent performance across different technological eras, train-test splits and validation methods. Two-factor and multi-factor experience curves exhibit higher sensitivity, with their performance metrics varying significantly based on the data subsets used. Diagnostic tests are important to examine the robustness of the results. For the environmental experience curve, data quality and model explanatory power are lower, yet there is potential for its applicability in projecting environmental impact and energy use. Policymakers and modellers should consider the specific technological era when using learning rates for decision-making. Our findings indicate that learning-by-doing provides a steady learning rate across all experience curves. In the early stages of technological maturity, cost reductions in the PV industry are driven by learning-by-innovation, which is later dominated by economies of scale.

   @article{maharjan2024,
     title = {Deriving Experience Curves: A Structured and Critical Approach Applied to {{PV}} Sector},
     shorttitle = {Deriving Experience Curves},
     author = {Maharjan, Prapti and Hauck, Mara and Kirkels, Arjan and Büttner, Benjamin and {de Coninck}, Heleen},
     year = {2024},
     month = oct,
     journal = {Technological Forecasting and Social Change},
     volume = {209},
     pages = {123795},
     publisher = {Elsevier},
     doi = {10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123795},
     urldate = {2025-05-01},
     langid = {english},
     dimensions = {false},
   }

Working papers

1. Patent Disclosure and Migration: Unraveling the Role of Examiners in Signaling Talent and Knowledge Transfer

   Benjamin Büttner, Emilio Raiteri, and Rudi Bekkers

   Presented at 18th Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property Association, EPIP 2023, Sep 2023

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   This paper shows that examiner-added citations, references inserted during patent prosecution, can serve as an exogenous signal of valuable, previously unrecognized knowledge. Using linked patent and visa data, we document that such citations are associated with increased international hiring, particularly among highly skilled foreign workers. The findings suggest that patent examiners inadvertently shape migration flows by making specific knowledge more visible and actionable for firms.

2. Unveiling Hidden Connections Between Science and Innovation: A Novel Approach to Patent-Paper Pairs

   Benjamin Büttner and Emilio Raiteri

   Presented at 19th Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property Association, EPIP 2024, Sep 2024

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   We introduce a deep learning pipeline to identify links between scientific publications and patents beyond formal citations. By comparing text and visual elements from full documents, the approach reveals overlooked but substantively meaningful connections between science and technology. This method improves coverage of patent–paper pairs, enables new analyses of science–technology transfer, and provides a scalable alternative to manual or citation-based linking.

3. Identifying Knowledge and Talent: Using the patent system to source high-skilled migrants

   Benjamin Büttner and Emilio Raiteri

   Presented at EPIP, Antwerpen 2025, Sep 2025

   Young Scholar Award (2nd) Abs Bib HTML

   The paper has been recognised with a Recommendation of Distinction (runner-up for the EPIP Young Scholar Award), in acknowledgment of its scholarly contribution and the value it brings to advancing research in the field.

   The patent system is primarily designed to incentivize innovation by granting temporary exclusivity in exchange for the disclosure of technological knowledge. Yet its function may have broader, underexplored implications: it may also serve as a navigational tool that helps firms identify emerging technologies, reduce search costs, and source external talent. By providing a structured repository of knowledge, the patent system helps firms identify ’gaps’ in their knowledge. This paper investigates whether such exposure is associated with increased recruitment of high-skilled foreign workers, with a particular focus on examiner-added citations as an exogenous source of knowledge. Focusing on the flow of talent from China to the United States, we combine data on US patent citations to Chinese patents with H-1B visa applications by Chinese nationals from 2009 to 2017. We first estimate the relationship at the county-industry-year level to capture broader high-skilled labor market effects, and then examine whether the effect persists at the level of individual firms. Our findings reveal a robust, positive association of US examiner-added citations to Chinese patents and subsequent H-1B visa applications by US firms for Chinese nationals. The effect is strongest in technology-intensive sectors and regions where China is at the global frontier and is particularly pronounced among California-based firms with high innovation intensity and highly competitive industries. These results suggest that the patent system, beyond its intended legal functionality, acts as an infrastructure for reducing search barriers and costs: by surfacing previously unfamiliar but relevant knowledge, it helps firms identify knowledge and capability gaps and guides global talent acquisition.

   @inproceedings{buttner2025,
     title = {Identifying Knowledge and Talent: Using the patent system to source high-skilled migrants},
     shorttitle = {Identifying Knowledge and Talent},
     author = {Büttner, Benjamin and Raiteri, Emilio},
     booktitle = {EPIP, Antwerpen 2025},
     year = {2025},
     month = sep,
     langid = {english},
     conference = {true},
   }

4. Breaking the Paywall: Patents as Channels for Scientific Disclosure

   Benjamin Büttner and Emilio Raiteri

   Presented at 20th Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property Association, EPIP 2025, Sep 2025

   Abs Bib HTML

   This paper examines whether patents can substitute for restricted-access scientific publications as a source of knowledge. We focus on cases where scientific content is replicated or disclosed in patent documents, enabling downstream users to access findings without paywall barriers. Using matched patent–paper data and citation outcomes, we show that such disclosure through patents disproportionately benefits resource-constrained actors, suggesting that patents may partially mitigate access inequalities in science.

   @inproceedings{buttner2026,
     title = {Breaking the Paywall: Patents as Channels for Scientific Disclosure},
     shorttitle = {Breaking the Paywall},
     author = {Büttner, Benjamin and Raiteri, Emilio},
     booktitle = {20th Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property Association, EPIP 2025},
     year = {2025},
     month = sep,
     langid = {english},
     conference = {true},
   }

Theses

1. From Disclosure to Diffusion: The Role of the Patent System in Overcoming Knowledge Barriers

   Benjamin Büttner

   PhD dissertation , Jun 2026

   Abs Bib HTML PDF

   Sir Isaac Newton’s famous remark, ’If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’, captures a well-established understanding of scientific and technological progress: Ideas build upon what came before. The cumulative nature of innovation depends on the ability to identify, access and understand previous contributions. Sharing scientific information enables problem-solving and accelerates innovation, yet making disclosure effective in practice requires coordinated effort. Maintaining global databases, standardizing reporting, and ensuring timely access demand substantial investment and policy interventions. Disclosure alone is not enough. Disclosure makes information formally public, yet diffusion determines who can locate, access, and apply it. Knowledge that cannot be found or interpreted remains effectively inaccessible. This dissertation examines how such barriers shape diffusion and whether the patent system can mitigate them. The patent system grants temporary exclusivity in exchange for detailed technical disclosure, creating a paradox: An instrument designed to restrict use simultaneously generates one of the largest repositories of freely accessible codified technical knowledge. This exclusivity–disclosure bargain makes the system both a diffusion channel and a mechanism of restriction. It also provides a unique data source. Because inventors must disclose all prior art relevant to their inventions, patent citations function as ’paper trails’ of how knowledge travels and is applied. By linking patents to scientific articles, firm-level data, and visa information, I measure diffusion patterns that would otherwise remain unobservable. The empirical analysis combine econometric methods with large-scale data science approaches, including deep learning for image and text recognition. Three structural barriers are studied empirically. Language constitutes the first barrier. Using a difference-in-differences design around the 2013 introduction of machine translation of Google Patents, I show that making Chinese patents accessible in English increased follow-on use by US inventors, with the strongest effects in frontier technologies and among smaller actors that lack resources to access foreign-language content. Access restrictions constitute the second barrier. I develop a deep-learning image-recognition pipeline that identifies scientific articles and patents disclosing the same underlying knowledge, producing a large dataset of patent–paper pairs. When the scientific article is behind a paywall, the linked patent provides an alternative channel through which the same knowledge becomes freely available. Closed-access papers with a linked patent receive substantially more citations from both scientists and inventors, with the largest effects among small firms and resource-constrained individuals. Discovery and search costs constitute the third barrier. Patent examiners independently add citations to prior art during the patenting process exposing applicants to new foreign knowledge. I use examiner-added citations to Chinese patents as exogenous exposure to foreign knowledge and show that US firms respond by filing works visa applications for Chinese nationals. The effect is strongest in sectors where China holds a technological advantage, consistent with firms identifying capability gaps through the patenting process and recruiting international talent to access unfamiliar knowledge. The three empirical chapters show that lowering barriers to knowledge diffusion generates measurable gains. When barriers fall, researchers and inventors respond immediately, indicating that the core constraint is not demand for knowledge but the difficulty of reaching or interpreting existing work. Some barriers are inherent, such as language or technical complexity, but can be reduced through technologies like machine translation. Others arise from institutional or commercial choices, such as paywalls or restrictive visa policies, and require policy intervention. Creating the conditions for broad and timely diffusion therefore requires active efforts to lower barriers across all disclosure channels, particularly for resource-constrained researchers, firms, and institutions. Lowering these barriers expands the pool of actors who can build on existing knowledge, which is essential for sustained scientific progress and innovation.

   @phdthesis{buttner2027,
     title = {From Disclosure to Diffusion: The Role of the Patent System in Overcoming Knowledge Barriers},
     author = {Büttner, Benjamin},
     year = {2026},
     month = jun,
     school = {Eindhoven University of Technology},
     address = {Eindhoven},
     type = {PhD Thesis},
     pages = {217},
     langid = {english},
   }