Seminar（Dept. of Trade Economics）

Theme：Quantitative Assessment on Frictions in Technology Market

Speaker：Yiran Zhang (School of Economics, Fudan University)

Time：2022-01-05 16:00

Address：Tencent Meeting

Language：Chinese/English

Venue: Tencent Meeting https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/5jamWTngsl4m 

Meeting ID: 179-511-565

Password: 0105

Abstract：

In this paper, I first document several novel stylized facts from Chinese patent transaction data matched with manufacturing firm data. A key finding is that Chinese patent market is significantly less developed than the US To understand the causes and consequences, I build a model that endogenizes firm R&D investment, patent trading decision and productivity growth. I structurally estimate the model and find the following two main results. First, Chinese patent market plays a small role in growth. It only accounts for 5% of China’s GDP growth rate, as opposed to 17% in the US Second, I evaluate the importance of three frictions calibrated to Chinese patent market: search cost, fixed transaction cost and information asymmetry. Search cost turns out to be the main friction to explain the gap of patent market size. If search cost was reduced to zero, China’s productivity growth rate would increase by 13%.