Speaker: Dr. 明洋 (Yang Ming)

Title: State Ownership and Firm R&D Performance: A New Perspective

Schedule: Dec 25, 1:30-3:00PM

Location: 诚明楼 (Chengming Hall), Rm 315

Introduction: 明洋，中央财经大学创新发展学院，中国经济与管理研究院助理教授。波士顿大学经济学博士。研究方向为经济增长、企业研发创新活动和应用微观计量经济学。在 Annals of Economics and Finance发表论文。担任Review of Economics and Statistics、Research Policy、Economic Modelling、Journal of Asia and Pacific Economy等期刊匿名审稿人。

Abstract: We show that the stock-market-based methodology of estimating patent value proposed by Kogan et al. (2017) applies to the Chinese economy, and follow their approach to evaluate patents issued to Chinese listed firms. Using this new data and patent citation data, we find that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have lower private economic value of innovation than non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs), while their scientific values of innovation are not significantly different. We provide evidence that the ownership-dependent gap in R&D performance is due to firm objective rather than capability – SOEs’ profit-seeking incentives are lower, and so are their private gains from innovations. Our findings suggest that the SOEs’ R&D activities produce more positive externality than the NSOEs’.