Patent Rights, Product Market Reforms, and Innovation

Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt and Susanne Prantl

No 18854, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Can patent protection and product market competition complement each other in enhancing incentives to innovate? In this paper, we address this question by investigating how innovation responses to a substantial policy initiative increasing product market competition interact with the strength of patent rights. We provide empirical evidence of innovation responding positively to the product market reform in industries of countries where patent rights are strong, not where these are weak. The positive response to the reform is more pronounced in industries in which innovators rely more on patenting than in other industries, and in which the scope for deterring entry through patenting is not too large. Our empirical findings are in line with step-by-step innovation models predicting that product market competition enhances innovation and, more importantly, that patent protection can complement competition in inducing innovation.

JEL-codes: L1 L5 O3 O4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~ and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published as Philippe Aghion & Peter Howitt & Susanne Prantl, 2015. "Patent rights, product market reforms, and innovation," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 223-262, September.

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Journal Article: Patent rights, product market reforms, and innovation (2015)
Working Paper: Patent rights, product market reforms, and innovation (2015)
Working Paper: Patent rights, product market reforms, and innovation (2015)
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