Tickets to the global market: First US patent award and Chinese firm exports

Robin Kaiji Gong; Yao Amber Li; Kalina Manova; Stephen Teng Sun

doi:10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104124

Tickets to the global market: First US patent award and Chinese firm exports

Robin Kaiji Gong, Yao Amber Li, Kalina Manova^*, Stephen Teng Sun

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

45 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

We investigate how international patent activity enables firms from emerging economies to thrive in the global marketplace. We match Chinese customs data to US patent records, and leverage the quasi-random assignment of USPTO patent examiners to identify the causal effect of a US patent grant on the subsequent export performance of Chinese firms. Successful first-time patent applicants achieve significantly higher export growth, compared to otherwise similar first-time applicants that failed. This effect operates only in small part through market protection for technologically patent-related products in the US, and is largely driven by expansion in other markets. The response across destinations and products reveals that a US patent award signals the Chinese firm's capacity to produce high-quality products and credibility to honor contracts, mitigating information frictions in international trade. There is little evidence for the relaxation of financial constraints or the promotion of follow-on innovation. © 2025 The Authors.

Original language	English
Article number	104124
Number of pages	26
Journal	Journal of International Economics
Volume	157
Online published	17 Jul 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104124
Publication status	Published - Sept 2025

Funding

Kalina Manova acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (grant agreement 724880). Yao Amber Li acknowledges funding from the HKUST Center for Economic Policy (grant number CEP23BM01).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Research Keywords

Asymmetric information
Export performance
Innovation
Market protection
Patent rights
Signaling
Trade

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access Output

10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104124

344323012.pdfFinal Published version, 2.3 MBLicence: CC BY

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

@article{b1200d24113945e7989732855609cb7a,

title = "Tickets to the global market: First US patent award and Chinese firm exports",

abstract = "We investigate how international patent activity enables firms from emerging economies to thrive in the global marketplace. We match Chinese customs data to US patent records, and leverage the quasi-random assignment of USPTO patent examiners to identify the causal effect of a US patent grant on the subsequent export performance of Chinese firms. Successful first-time patent applicants achieve significantly higher export growth, compared to otherwise similar first-time applicants that failed. This effect operates only in small part through market protection for technologically patent-related products in the US, and is largely driven by expansion in other markets. The response across destinations and products reveals that a US patent award signals the Chinese firm's capacity to produce high-quality products and credibility to honor contracts, mitigating information frictions in international trade. There is little evidence for the relaxation of financial constraints or the promotion of follow-on innovation. {\textcopyright} 2025 The Authors.",

keywords = "Asymmetric information, Export performance, Innovation, Market protection, Patent rights, Signaling, Trade",

author = "Gong, {Robin Kaiji} and Li, {Yao Amber} and Kalina Manova and Sun, {Stephen Teng}",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104124",

language = "English",

volume = "157",

journal = "Journal of International Economics",

issn = "0022-1996",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Tickets to the global market

T2 - First US patent award and Chinese firm exports

AU - Gong, Robin Kaiji

AU - Li, Yao Amber

AU - Manova, Kalina

AU - Sun, Stephen Teng

PY - 2025/9

Y1 - 2025/9

N2 - We investigate how international patent activity enables firms from emerging economies to thrive in the global marketplace. We match Chinese customs data to US patent records, and leverage the quasi-random assignment of USPTO patent examiners to identify the causal effect of a US patent grant on the subsequent export performance of Chinese firms. Successful first-time patent applicants achieve significantly higher export growth, compared to otherwise similar first-time applicants that failed. This effect operates only in small part through market protection for technologically patent-related products in the US, and is largely driven by expansion in other markets. The response across destinations and products reveals that a US patent award signals the Chinese firm's capacity to produce high-quality products and credibility to honor contracts, mitigating information frictions in international trade. There is little evidence for the relaxation of financial constraints or the promotion of follow-on innovation. © 2025 The Authors.

AB - We investigate how international patent activity enables firms from emerging economies to thrive in the global marketplace. We match Chinese customs data to US patent records, and leverage the quasi-random assignment of USPTO patent examiners to identify the causal effect of a US patent grant on the subsequent export performance of Chinese firms. Successful first-time patent applicants achieve significantly higher export growth, compared to otherwise similar first-time applicants that failed. This effect operates only in small part through market protection for technologically patent-related products in the US, and is largely driven by expansion in other markets. The response across destinations and products reveals that a US patent award signals the Chinese firm's capacity to produce high-quality products and credibility to honor contracts, mitigating information frictions in international trade. There is little evidence for the relaxation of financial constraints or the promotion of follow-on innovation. © 2025 The Authors.

KW - Asymmetric information

KW - Export performance

KW - Innovation

KW - Market protection

KW - Patent rights

KW - Signaling

KW - Trade

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105011483616&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105011483616&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104124

DO - 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104124

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

AN - SCOPUS:105011483616

SN - 0022-1996

VL - 157

JO - Journal of International Economics

JF - Journal of International Economics

M1 - 104124

ER -

Tickets to the global market: First US patent award and Chinese firm exports

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Cite this