Intellectual Property Rights and Debt Financing

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Suh, Paula
• 署名单位: University System of Georgia; University of Georgia
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhac067
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1970
• 关键词: research-and-development; Creditor rights; INNOVATION; OWNERSHIP; INVESTMENT; AGREEMENTS; ENFORCEMENT; INVENTIONS; employers; LAWS

摘要

I examine how the investment and financing of innovation are affected by the contractual allocation of intellectual property rights using a Federal Circuit ruling that strengthened firms' property rights to employee patents. I find that treatment firms' total debt-to-assets ratio and R&D spending increase by 18% and 9%, respectively, as the residual control over patents increases firms' incentives to innovate. These effects are more pronounced when ex ante holdup exposure is high. Furthermore, I find a positive marginal effect of asset complementarity as it limits the decline in employee incentives. Consistently, I show that firms' ex post asset complementarity improves.