Geographical and Industrial Dynamics of Chemical Inventions: The Case of Persistent Organic Pollutants

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of highly toxic chemical substances, and for this reason, their use, production, and trade have been banned across countries worldwide. I examine the first group of POPs to be banned (i.e., aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), toxaphene, DDT, pentachlorobenzene and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins) and investigate the historical and emergent pattern of POP-related inventions by way of a unique dataset that includes patent applications over the period 1991–2010. I find an industry growth over time characterized by an increasing number of new firms inventing around POP-related technologies as well as a diffusion in a range of new countries such as China, Argentina, Brazil and Russia rather than the USA, EU and Japan where POP-related inventions were first filed in history.