Intangible Capital and Leverage
利用美国法院随机分配法官导致的专利无效外生冲击，发现专利无效使企业杠杆率下降14.1%，表明无形资本对杠杆有因果支持作用，尤其对以专利作贷款抵押、信用较差或规模较小的企业影响更大。
Abstract We investigate the causal effect of intangible capital on leverage. To address endogeneity, we exploit patent invalidations by a U.S. court in which judges are randomly assigned to cases. Differences in judge leniency provide exogenous variation in the probability that firms’ patents are invalidated. Using this probability as an instrument for exogenous losses in intangible capital, we find a patent invalidation leads to a 14.1% reduction in leverage, suggesting that intangible capital causally supports leverage. This local average treatment effect is stronger in firms that use patents as loan collateral and in less creditworthy as well as smaller firms.