Patent Quality, Firm Value, and Investor Underreaction: Evidence from Patent Examiner Busyness
64 Pages Posted: 11 Mar 2018 Last revised: 4 Aug 2021
Date Written: August 4, 2021
Abstract
This paper attempts to study the causal effect of examiner busyness on patent quality and firm value. Using a broad set of patent quality measures, we document strong evidence that patents allowed by busy examiners exhibit significantly lower quality. Further, examiner busyness of firms’ patents negatively predicts the firms’ future stock returns, which is consistent with investor underreaction to examiner busyness. Examiners’ experience helps attenuate the negative effect of examiner busyness.
Keywords: patent quality, examiner busyness, stock returns, investor underreaction.
JEL Classification: G14, G32, G41, O31
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation