IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v103y2025ics1059056025004836.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intellectual property protection, R&D investment and digital technology innovation: An empirical study based on the revision of the patent law

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Lei
  • Wang, Jieshuang

Abstract

The refinement and sophistication of legal frameworks have consistently served as a pivotal driving force behind technological innovation within enterprises. Leveraging the 2009 revision of China's Patent Law as a quasi-natural experiment, this study employs a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to evaluate the causal effect of enhanced intellectual property protection on digital technology innovation among A-share listed companies. The empirical results demonstrate that the legislative change significantly boosts firms' digital patent output, particularly in eastern regions, firms with lower financing constraints, and those classified as high-tech enterprises. Mechanism analysis reveals that the positive effect operates through increased R&D investment and the expansion of R&D personnel. A battery of robustness checks—including placebo tests, PSM-DID, and Heckman selection models—confirms the credibility of the findings. This study contributes to the literature by providing robust evidence on how institutional reforms in intellectual property protection can foster digital innovation through financial and organizational channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Lei & Wang, Jieshuang, 2025. "Intellectual property protection, R&D investment and digital technology innovation: An empirical study based on the revision of the patent law," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1059056025004836
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2025.104320
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056025004836
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2025.104320?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1059056025004836. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.