What can explain the Chinese patent explosion?

We analyse the ‘explosion’ of patent filings by Chinese residents both domestically and in the United States during the early 2000s, employing a unique dataset of 374,000 firms matching patent applications to manufacturing census data. Our analysis reveals that patenting is highly concentrated among...

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Main Authors: Eberhardt, Markus, Helmers, Christian, Yu, Zhihong
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2017
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34359/
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author Eberhardt, Markus
Helmers, Christian
Yu, Zhihong
author_facet Eberhardt, Markus
Helmers, Christian
Yu, Zhihong
author_sort Eberhardt, Markus
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We analyse the ‘explosion’ of patent filings by Chinese residents both domestically and in the United States during the early 2000s, employing a unique dataset of 374,000 firms matching patent applications to manufacturing census data. Our analysis reveals that patenting is highly concentrated among a small number of firms, operating in the information and communication technology sector. Although increases in patent filings by these companies are partly driven by increased R&D intensity, our analysis suggests that the explosion of patent filings at the Chinese patent office is driven by factors other than underlying innovative behavior, including government subsidies that encourage patent filings directly.
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institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
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publishDate 2017
publisher Oxford University Press
recordtype eprints
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spelling nottingham-343592020-05-04T18:22:59Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34359/ What can explain the Chinese patent explosion? Eberhardt, Markus Helmers, Christian Yu, Zhihong We analyse the ‘explosion’ of patent filings by Chinese residents both domestically and in the United States during the early 2000s, employing a unique dataset of 374,000 firms matching patent applications to manufacturing census data. Our analysis reveals that patenting is highly concentrated among a small number of firms, operating in the information and communication technology sector. Although increases in patent filings by these companies are partly driven by increased R&D intensity, our analysis suggests that the explosion of patent filings at the Chinese patent office is driven by factors other than underlying innovative behavior, including government subsidies that encourage patent filings directly. Oxford University Press 2017-01-01 Article PeerReviewed Eberhardt, Markus, Helmers, Christian and Yu, Zhihong (2017) What can explain the Chinese patent explosion? Oxford Economic Papers, 69 (1). pp. 239-262. ISSN 0030-7653 https://academic.oup.com/oep/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/oep/gpw042 doi:10.1093/oep/gpw042 doi:10.1093/oep/gpw042
spellingShingle Eberhardt, Markus
Helmers, Christian
Yu, Zhihong
What can explain the Chinese patent explosion?
title What can explain the Chinese patent explosion?
title_full What can explain the Chinese patent explosion?
title_fullStr What can explain the Chinese patent explosion?
title_full_unstemmed What can explain the Chinese patent explosion?
title_short What can explain the Chinese patent explosion?
title_sort what can explain the chinese patent explosion?
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34359/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34359/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34359/