China's Patent Promotion Policies and Its Quality Implications

Trade Development and Political Economy presents: Cheryl Long - China's Patent Promotion Policies and Its Quality Implications

Cheryl Long, Xiamen University & Colgate University

Based on China’s patent data from 1985 to 2010, the authors find that behind the country's patent number explosion, the overall innovation content of Chinese patents has not achieved proportional growth. An important explanation for this phenomenon is the patent promotion polices (PPPs), which have prompted the quantitative expansion of patent applications and approvals, but have had negative effects on average patent quality, as proxied by patent application withdrawal rate and patent renewal rate. These patterns are observed both at the provincial level and at the patent level, and they are especially pertinent for patent applications filed by firms, which are the main targets of the PPPs.

Professor Cheryl Xiaoning Long is a Cheung Kong Scholar and a member of the Oversight Group in Economics for the State Council’s Academic Degree Commission in China. She also serves as a co-editor at China Economic Review.  Professor Long obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2001. Her work has been published in top journals including the Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of International Economics etc.

Sponsored by the Trade Development and Political Economy Program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs