Patent quality, firm value, and investor underreaction: Evidence from patent examiner busyness *

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Shu, Tao; Tian, Xuan; Zhan, Xintong
• 署名单位: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Tsinghua University; Fudan University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.10.013
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1043-1069
• 关键词: Patent quality; Examiner busyness; stock returns; Investor underreaction

摘要

This paper attempts to study the causal effect of examiner busyness on patent quality and firm value. Using a broad set of patent quality measures, we find strong evidence that patents allowed by busy examiners exhibit significantly lower quality. Further, examiner busyness of firms' patents negatively predicts the firms' future stock returns, which is consistent with investor underreaction to examiner busyness. Examiners' experience helps attenuate the negative effect of examiner busyness. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.