Olof Ejermo

Associate Professor in Innovation Economics, PhD, Docent

My main interest is presently the study of Swedish inventors. We have compiled a database of about 23,000 Swedish inventors which is presently analyzed in research questions addressing:

• Does education lead to invention and innovation?
• Does academia contribute to invention?
• Does invention lead to new firms, and what are the effects of these firms on growth?
• What is the relationship between invention and business cycles?

The main catalyst for the database was a pilot project for the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis, where we managed to link to registers as many as 64% of Swedish inventors listed on European Office Patent records for the period 1978-2009. The resulting report is available here: http://tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/working_paper-pm/article0034.html.

This report discusses education levels, inventors by sector, age, gender among other statistics. Presently we have now been able to reach a match rate of 79% with good coverage all the way back to 1978, which means that we can analyze inventors in panels. This is further enabled by their link to individual (demographic) data covering the whole Swedish population at Statistics Sweden.

The material’s development and research inquiries have been stimulated further through a grant awarded from the Swedish research council (VR) running 2012-2014 where I am project leader and involving Högni Kalsö Hansen (Copenhagen University) and Tayheun Jung (CIRCLE).

The project for VR is set to investigate space and time dynamics of inventors. Principally, we look for patterns where inventors have tended to be located at one or several points in time at common locations. Location here refers to combinations of geographical space and organizations, such as firms or universities. Thus, we examine whether certain locations in time and space are more common for inventors.

In recent research, I have also published articles on the relationship between R&D and business sectors, the relationship in terms of trends in patent productivity in Swedish sectors. I have also investigated regional links between R&D, patenting and growth. For some of these issues I have developed quality-adjusted measures of patenting, on regional and sector levels.

Recent peer reviewed work

Ejermo, O. and Gråsjö, U. (2011), Invention, innovation and regional growth in Swedish regions, Forthcoming In Johansson, B., Karlsson, C. and Stough, R. (Eds.): Innovation, Technology and Knowledge: Their Role in Economic Development, London: Routledge

Ejermo, O., A. Kander and M. Svensson Henning (2011), “The R&D-growth paradox arises in fast-growing sectors, “ Research Policy, 40(5), 664-672

Ejermo, O. and A. Kander (2011), “Swedish business research productivity, “Industrial and Corporate Change, published online: May 24, 2011

Recent work submitted for publication

Bergman, K. and O. Ejermo (2011) A study of the dependence on trade for Swedish Business R&D (submitted to a journal) an earlier version available as CIRCLE electronic working paper 2011/05, http://www.circle.lu.se/publications/circle-electronic-working-paper-series

Recent reports, non-peer reviewed

Ejermo, O. (2012), Universitet som drivkraft för tillväxt och utveckling [Universities as drivers for growth and development], Örebro University and Entrepreneurship Forum, Örebro [download here]

Andersson, M., Dieden, S. and Ejermo, O. (2012), Näringslivets forskningsverksamhet – hur sårbart är Sverige på en global marknad? [Research in Swedish business – how vulnerable is it on a global market?], Globaliseringsforum Report #4, Entrepreneurship Forum, Stockholm [download here]

Ejermo, O. (2012), Svensk innovationskraft – ett innovationsekonomiskt perspektiv [Swedish Innovation Drivers – an Innovation Economics Perspective], Entrepreneurship Forum, Stockholm

Ejermo, O. and T. Jung (2012), Radical technologies and diverse technology-bases, Final report (deliverable 2.4.6) for AEGIS (Advancing Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Economic Growth and Social Well-being in Europe), large-scale integrated EU-project

Ejermo, O. and T. Jung (2012), Demographic patterns and trends in patenting: Gender, age, and education of inventors, CIRCLE Working Paper, WP2012/05

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