Financial Innovation in the 21st Century: Evidence from U.S. Patenting1 Josh Lerner Amit Seru Nicholas Short Yuan Sun August 7, 2020 Patents provide a window into the evolution of financial innovation over the past two decades. We first highlight the growth and importance of these awards in the 21st century. The dramatic surge in financial patenting has been driven largely by information technology and other non-financial firms, while banks and other financial institutions have narrowed the scope of their innovations. These shifts have been an accompanied by a decline in the links between patent awards and academic knowledge, and shifts in the geographic location of innovation, especially within incumbent firms. 1
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[email protected]. All authors are affiliated with Harvard University except for Seru, who is at Stanford University. Lerner and Seru are affiliates of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Harvard Business School’s Division of Research and Doctoral Programs provided financial support for this project. We thank Howell Jackson, Adam Jaffe, Andy Toole, and seminar participants at Stanford Law School for helpful comments. Rick Townsend kindly allowed us to use the patent-venture capital mapping. Patrick Clapp, Amin Gulamali, Stephen Moon, Mahlon Reihman, Kathleen Ryan, Rhys Sevier, and James Zeitler provided excellent research assistance. Lerner has received compensation for consulting with financial institutions. All errors and omissions are our own. 1 1. Introduction The extent and consequences of innovation in the finance industry has been a subject of intense skepticism since the global financial crisis (GFC).