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Intellectual Property Rights and Patenting in China's High‐technology Industries: Does Ownership Matter?
Author(s) -
Yang ChihHai,
Kuo ChunChien,
Ramstetter Eric D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
china and world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.815
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1749-124X
pISSN - 1671-2234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-124x.2011.01261.x
Subject(s) - intellectual property , china , business , productivity , international trade , property rights , technology innovation , industrial organization , empirical evidence , economics , economic growth , microeconomics , political science , law , philosophy , epistemology
This paper aims to systematically investigate the impacts of strengthening intellectual property rights on patenting in China's high‐technology industries and to explore the potential differences in response to patent reform by ownership. Empirical results show that the estimated patent elasticity of R&D is lower than that for OECD countries, indicating relatively low R&D productivity for China's high‐technology industries. The direct innovation effect of technology imports is negative, while the absorptive ability embodied in R&D helps in gaining external sources of knowledge, thus contributing to innovations. Specifically, strengthening intellectual property rights can induce more innovations in terms of patents in China's high‐technology industries and is particularly relevant to foreign‐owned high‐technology enterprises.