How can one explain cross-national differences in innovative activity
across the industrialized democracies? In this article, I examine the
“varieties of capitalism” (VOC) response to this question.
VOC theory predicts that societies with liberal-market economies will
direct their inventive activity toward radical technological change,
while societies with coordinated-market economies will direct their
inventive activity toward incremental technological change. I find that
these predictions are not supported by the empirical data, and that the
evidence offered by VOC proponents depends heavily on the inclusion of
a major outlier, the United States, in the class of liberal-market
economies. My empirical investigation includes simple patent counts,
patents weighted by forward citations, and scholarly publications (both
simple counts and citations-weighted). I analyze data covering all of
the VOC countries over the course of several decades, little of which
reveals the innovative patterns predicted by VOC scholars.For their excellent insights, critiques, and
encouragement I gratefully thank Thomas Cusack, Tracy Gabridge, Michael
Brewster Hawes, Derek Hill, Daniel K. Johnson, Chappel Lawson, Mark
Lewis, Benedicta Marzinotto, Andrew Miller, Michael Piore, Jonathan
Rodden, Herman Schwartz, James Snyder, David Soskice, Edward Steinfeld,
Scott Stern, Dan Winship, the editors at International
Organization, and two anonymous reviewers.