Keynotes

GECON 2024 is honored to have the keynote speaker: 

Speaker: Arianna Martinelli         

Title: Patents and the technological evolution of AI 

Abstract:

The transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly unfolding. Because of
market failures in the production of knowledge that underpins technical change, governments
have played an important role in designing appropriate incentives and in supporting R&D
activities in the economy. Grasping how private and public incentives coexist in shaping how
the AI technological trajectory evolves is pivotal to understanding firms’ behaviour and
policy impact. This talk examines some aspects on the innovative process in AI, delving into
the role that government grants and government departments played in the development of
AI. We analyze all AI patents filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office and develop
network measures that capture each patentâ’s influence on all possible sequences of follow-
on innovation. By identifying the effect of patents on technological trajectories, we are able
to account for the long-term cumulative impact of new knowledge that is not captured by
standard patent citation measures. We show that patents funded by government grants, but
above all patents filed by federal agencies and state departments, profoundly influenced the
development of AI. These long-term effects were especially significant in early phases, and
weakened over time as private incentives took over.

Short Bio: 

Arianna Martinelli is Associate Professor in Applied Economics at the Institute of Economics
of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Social Studies
from Bocconi University in Milan, a Msc in Industry and Innovation Analysis from SPRU
(Science and Technology Policy Research) at Sussex University and a Ph.D. in Economics of
Technical Change from the Eindhoven University of Technology. Her research interests include
the use of IPR data patents as an indicator of innovative activities, the interplay between IPR
and technological standardization, the empirical investigation of technological paradigms and
trajectories, the internationalization of innovative activities. She published the outcome of her
research in highly reputed international journals, such as Research Policy, Journal of Economic
Geography, World Development, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, the Journal of
Technology Transfers, and the Journal of Evolutionary Economics.