Patenting as a Public Sector Innovative Response to the Great Recession

The literature on innovative responses to periods of economic change has focused on private sector firm behavior. This paper expands the literature by focusing on aspects of the public sector’s response to the Great Recession. The data used relate to patent applications by U.S. federal laboratories. Contrary to previous findings about the private sector’s waning innovation response to the Great Recession, the findings presented show that the U.S. public sector’s post-Great Recession response was positive. Arguments to explain this finding are also presented.