Competition and R&D Financing: Evidence from the Biopharmaceutical Industry
49 Pages Posted: 25 Jan 2015 Last revised: 12 Feb 2018
There are 2 versions of this paper
Competition and R&D Financing: Evidence from the Biopharmaceutical Industry
Competition and R&D Financing Decisions: Theory and Evidence from the Biopharmaceutical Industry
Date Written: February 2018
Abstract
What is the interaction between competition, R&D investments, and the financing choices of R&D-intensive firms? Motivated by existing theories, we hypothesize that as competition increases, R&D-intensive firms will: (1) increase R&D investment relative to assets-in-place that support existing products; (2) carry more cash; and (3) maintain less net debt. We provide causal evidence supporting these hypotheses by exploiting differences between the biopharma industry and other industries, as well as heterogeneity within the biopharma industry, in response to an exogenous change in competition. We also explore how these changes affect innovative output, and provide novel evidence that in response to greater competition, companies increasingly “focus” their efforts—there is a relative decline in the total number of innovations, but an increase in the economic value of these innovations.
Keywords: Healthcare Finance; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Capital Structure; R&D Investments; Competition; Innovation
JEL Classification: G31, G32, L11, L12, L25, L65, O32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
