Seminar (Dept. of Finance)

Title :Do Startup Patent Acquisitions Affect Inventor Productivity?

Speaker :Zack Liu, Assistant professor, University of Houston

Time:9:00-10:30, Nov.11, 2022

Venue:Online Meeting

Language :English

ABSTRACT:

We show that the acquisition of a startup inventor's first patent has a negative effect on the subsequent productivity of the patent's inventor, leading to 6.7 fewer patents being granted to the inventor over five years. This effect is not due to the inventor focusing on high-quality patents—in fact, the opposite appears to be the case. Our novel identification strategy is motivated by two new findings: Incumbent firms are more likely to acquire the patents of startups that patent examiners ask them to cite, and examiners are more likely to cite patents that they have reviewed in the past. When combined with the quasi-random assignment of patent applications to examiners, these two findings give rise to quasi-random linkages between startups and potential acquirers that help identify the causal effect of patent acquisitions on inventor productivity.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Zack Liu is an assistant professor of Finance at the C.T. Bauer College of Business of University of Houston. Professor Liu’s primary research interests lie in the fields of empirical corporate finance and innovation. In these areas, Professor Liu has published his researches in top finance journals including The Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics.