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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 85 2024

Patent pledgeability, trade secrecy, and corporate patenting

Yanke Dai1; Ting Du2; Huasheng Gao3; Yan Gu3; Yongqin Wang3

1 Shanghai University of International Business and Economics · 2 Central University of Finance and Economics · 3 Fudan University

Abstract

We identify a positive effect of patent pledgeability on corporate patenting. Our tests exploit staggered city-level policy changes that allow firms to use patents as collateral for financing. We find a significant increase in patents and patent citations for firms headquartered in cities that have adopted such policies relative to firms headquartered in cities that have not. We further show that patent pledgeability increases corporate patenting by inducing firms to shift from secrecy-based innovation to patent-based innovation, rather than by mitigating financial constraints.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2024.102563
Volume
85
Pages
102563
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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