IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jitecd/v34y2025i5p1070-1093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The nexus of intellectual property rights and firm productivity in China: A nonlinear approach

Author

Listed:
  • Renliang Liu

Abstract

This paper explores the way that intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection as a moderator variable affects firm-level productivity gains through innovation (filing patents) and diffusion (importing goods). Applying the estimation method of conditional average treatment effect by Lee, Okui, and Whang (2017) to Chinese firm data, I show the graphic representation of the non-linearity that characterizes the heterogeneous average treatment effects of patenting and importing activities on firm productivity. The graphic results suggest that the productivity effect of patenting is positively influenced by local IPRs protection, while that of importing is initially negatively and subsequently positively affected by IPRs protection. I also find that overstrict protection of IPRs may diminish the productivity impact of both channels, and private-owned firms rely more on IPRs protection to enhance productivity through filing patents.

Suggested Citation

  • Renliang Liu, 2025. "The nexus of intellectual property rights and firm productivity in China: A nonlinear approach," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(5), pages 1070-1093, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jitecd:v:34:y:2025:i:5:p:1070-1093
    DOI: 10.1080/09638199.2024.2364674
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638199.2024.2364674
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638199.2024.2364674?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

    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:taf:jitecd:v:34:y:2025:i:5:p:1070-1093. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJTE20 .

    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.