Date of Award
9-10-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Discipline
Social Sciences
Department
Economics
First Advisor
Prof. QIU Dongxiao Larry
Second Advisor
Prof. SONG Min
Abstract
The relationship between innovation and economic activity is intricately intertwined. This thesis provides an in-depth study of the causal effect of international patenting on exports and, in turn, investigates the impacts of the anti-corruption campaign on innovation. It is organized into two chapters. The first chapter of the thesis examines the implications of international patenting on the export performance of Chinese exporting firms from 2000 to 2016. Based on 289,416 international patents that Chinese residents file in other national or regional patent offices, obtained from the Google Patent Database, we map them to domestic patented exporting firms using the priority link method. We find that international patenting promotes firms' exports. To establish causality, we further conduct a propensity score matching procedure and construct shift-sharing instruments. Furthermore, we leverage our detailed microdata on export and patenting activities at the firm-country-product level for firms engaged in international patenting. First, we examine the direct effects of international patenting on protection product-country pairs, where we discern a pronounced positive impact. Within this framework, we assess the ramifications of three distinct patent application outcomes: granted applications, rejected applications, and those still pending, and find that their effects on export are all positive except in the case of rejection decision appearance. Second, we turn our attention to the analysis of within-firm spillover effects. We find that international patenting has a within-product, across-country spillover effect but no within-country, across-product spillover effect. The positive across-country spillover effect occurs only after the first publication of the international patent. The separate analysis of direct and spillover effects helps us to isolate the protection and signaling mechanisms by which international patent applications promote exports. The second chapter of the thesis studies the effect of an anti-corruption campaign on innovation. Using central inspections of China aimed at SOEs as a quasi-natural experiment, we investigate the causal effect of anti-corruption campaigns on the innovation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Based on a sample of China's SOEs, we find that the central inspections lead to an uplift in the quantity of SOE innovation at the expense of innovation quality. Further analysis indicates that, owing to the unique motivation of political promotion, SOE managers improve the operation indicators valued by the government when subjected to political intervention in the shape of anti-corruption, such as innovation quantity, referred to as the political monitoring mechanism. Eventually, there will be a decline in the quality of innovation that will supplement the long-term value of SOEs since the central inspection does not contribute to corporate governance.
Language
English
Copyright
The copyright of this thesis is owned by its author. Any reproduction, adaptation, distribution or dissemination of this thesis without express authorization is strictly prohibited.
Recommended Citation
Nie, C. (2024). Two essays on institution, innovation and trade in China (Doctoral thesis, Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Retrieved from https://commons.ln.edu.hk/otd/218/