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Abstract
Using patent counts and citation data from 1977 to 2011, we explore the determining factors of
innovative activities of the U.S. biofuel industry.We take into account both demand-side factors—
such as crude-oil price, government R&D expenditure on biofuel, and federal-level support
policies—and supply-side factors, represented by constructed knowledge stocks, to quantify
the effects on biofuel-related innovations. The citation generation process is quantified using
patent citation records and the estimates are used to construct the simple and weighted stocks
of knowledge with weights of patent productivity. We confirm that both the demand and supply
factors have positive and statistically significant effects on technological biofuel innovations in
the United States.