Public firm disclosures and the market for innovation
研究发现上市公司信息披露对专利交易市场有正向溢出效应，上市公司数量从25%分位升至75%分位时，其他相关方的未来专利销售增加9.4%，尤其在信息不对称严重时更显著。
We examine the spillover effect of public firm disclosures on the patent trading market. The patent market is rife with information frictions, yet can potentially facilitate the reallocation of innovation to the most productive users. We find that going from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile in public firm presence – our proxy for public firm disclosures – is linked to a 9.4% increase in other related parties’ future patent sales. The positive link between public firm presence is stronger where information asymmetry is greatest and where information uncertainty prevails relative to transactions less likely to suffer from information frictions. Tests exploiting cross-sectional variation and public firms’ EDGAR implementation corroborate the resolution of information frictions as a mechanism. Additional tests reveal financial statement disclosure as an important information source facilitating patent sales. Our results speak to an important and underexplored externality of public firm disclosures – its contribution to the patent market.