Patent Laws and Innovation in China.

Working paper

This paper explores how the patent laws and intellectual property rights (IPR) system in China have affected innovation during the reform period. Subject to criticism due to imperfect enforcement, the patent law system has produced a stock of patents which has grown rapidly alongside economic growth. Despite significant regional disparities in income and the level of innovation, the success rates of patent applications are similar across the country. The application of the patent laws alone seems insufficient to explain these differences. We thus present a simple model of patent production in China derived from the patent law system. We find the main determinants of patents to be R&D; expenditure and foreign direct investment (FDI), but not the number of researchers, though the level of human capital matters. We conclude that the policies governing FDI and R&D; are the main determinants of patents, as the IPR system is fairly uniform across provinces.

Authors: Yueh, L

• Publisher: Department of Economics (University of Oxford)
• Series: Discussion paper series
• Publication date: 2006-01-01
• Language: English