Tickets to the Global Market: First US Patent Awards and Chinese Firm Exports

Robin Kaiji Gong, Yao Li, Kalina Manova, Stephen Teng Sun and Kalina B. Manova
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Kalina Manova

No 10790, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We investigate how international patent activity enables firms from emerging economies to thrive in the global marketplace. We match Chinese customs data to US patent records, and leverage the quasi-random assignment of USPTO patent examiners to identify the causal effect of a US patent grant on the subsequent export performance of Chinese firms. Successful first-time patent applicants achieve significantly higher export growth, compared to otherwise similar first-time applicants that failed. This effect operates only in small part through market protection for technologically patent-related products in the US, and is largely driven by expansion in other markets. The response across destinations and products reveals that a US patent award signals the Chinese firm’s capacity to produce high-quality products and credibility to honor contracts, mitigating information frictions in international trade. There is little evidence for the relaxation of financial constraints or the promotion of follow-on innovation.

Keywords: patent rights; innovation; export performance; trade; market protection; asymmetric information; signaling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F14 O30 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ino, nep-int and nep-ipr
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Related works:
Working Paper: Tickets to the global market: First US patent awards and Chinese firm exports (2023)
Working Paper: Tickets to the Global Market: First US Patent Awards and Chinese Firm Exports (2023)
Working Paper: Tickets to the global market: first US patent awards and Chinese firm exports (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10790

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