Christian Rutzer, Dragan Filimonovic, Jeffrey T. Macher, Rolf Weder
arXiv 18 Mar 2026 · Econometrics
arXiv:2603.17881 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text
The CD index is a widely used measure of disruptive inventions. Most studies compute it using USPTO data. This creates a puzzle because the US appears less disruptive than European and Asian countries. We show that this largely stems from missing international citations. Using a global citation network, we quantify and correct this bias. The disruptiveness advantage of non-US inventors drops by 64% to 148% of the US baseline mean. The US emerges as a disruption leader over Europe, with Asia's advantage substantially reduced. Globally integrated citation data are essential for credible measurement of disruptive innovation in international contexts.
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The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.
| Reference | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | Main text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Funk, Russell J and Owen-Smith, Jason (2017) A dynamic network measure of technological change | 1.000 | 7 | 3 | 100% |
| 2 | Macher, Jeffrey T and Rutzer, Christian and Weder, Rolf (2024) Is there a secular decline in disruptive patents? Correcting for measurement bias self | 0.928 | 4 | 3 | 100% |
| 3 | Park, Michael and Leahey, Erin and Funk, Russell J (2023) Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time | 0.928 | 4 | 3 | 100% |
| 4 | Wu, Lingfei and Wang, Dashun and Evans, James A (2019) Large teams develop and small teams disrupt science and technology | 0.928 | 4 | 3 | 100% |
| WIPO2025 | unmatched citation key WIPO2025 | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 6 | Aghion, Philippe and Antonin, Céline and Bunel, Simon (2021) The power of creative destruction: Economic upheaval and the wealth of nations | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 7 | Feng, Josh and Jaravel, Xavier (2020) Crafting intellectual property rights: Implications for patent assertion entities, litigation, and innovation | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 8 | Jaffe, Adam B and Trajtenberg, Manuel and Henderson, Rebecca (1993) Geographic localization of knowledge spillovers as evidenced by patent citations | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 9 | Jaffe, Adam B and De Rassenfosse, Gaétan (2019) Patent citation data in social science research: Overview and best practices | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 10 | Leibel, Christian and Bornmann, Lutz (2024) What do we know about the disruption index in scientometrics? An overview of the literature | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
Showing the top 10 of 47 scored citations. 1 of these could not be matched to a bibliography entry, so only the citation key is shown.