Innovation in private and state-owned enterprises: A cross-industry analysis of patenting activity

• The present paper compares the innovative performance of State-owned (SOEs) and privately-owned enterprises (POEs). • The number of patent applications is used as a proxy of innovation outcome, while patent forward citations are used as a proxy of innovation value. • The analysis focuses on high- and medium high-tech manufacturing industries and knowledge intensive services. • The analysis involves more than 2,000 SOEs and uses matching techniques to select a suitable control group of POEs. • Results suggest that cross-industry heterogeneity exists. Overall, SOEs innovative performance is comparable or even superior to that of POEs. The aim of the present paper is to compare the innovation output of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Privately-Owned Enterprises (POEs), as measured by patent activity, taking a cross-industry perspective. Estimation results focusing on EU countries over the period 2011-2018 reveals that in some medium high-tech manufacturing industries (i.e., manufacturing of chemical products and motor-vehicles) and in the gas and electricity industries the innovative performance of SOEs is on average superior to those of POEs. No statistically significant difference can be detected in high-tech manufacturing, while in knowledge intensive services the evidence is mixed: SOEs innovation output is inferior to POEs’ in professional, scientific, and technical activities; yet SOEs outperform POEs in transport services. Overall, these results suggest that, in specific economic sectors, SOEs may act as an important vehicle for technological development.