Share Repurchases and Firm Innovation

Abstract

We examine whether corporate decisions such as share repurchases influence a firm’s intangible assets and their production. We find a significantly negative relationship between share repurchases and firm innovation. The negative relationship survives all considered robustness tests. We further apply two identification strategies, namely, difference-in-differences analysis and instrumental variables estimation, to establish that the negative effect is causal; that is, from share repurchases to innovation.

Keywords: Share repurchase, Firm innovation, Patents

JEL Classification: G35, O31