We identify a positive effect of patent pledgeability on corporate patenting. Our tests exploit staggered city-level policy changes that allow firms to use patents as collateral for financing. We find a significant increase in patents and patent citations for firms headquartered in cities that have adopted such policies relative to firms headquartered in cities that have not. We further show that patent pledgeability increases corporate patenting by inducing firms to shift from secrecy-based innovation to patent-based innovation, rather than by mitigating financial constraints.

中文翻译：

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专利质押、商业秘密和企业专利

我们发现专利质押对企业专利申请具有积极影响。我们的测试利用了城市级政策的交错变化，允许企业使用专利作为融资抵押品。我们发现，总部位于采取此类政策的城市的公司的专利和专利引用量相对于总部位于未采取此类政策的城市的公司显着增加。我们进一步表明，专利质押性通过诱导企业从基于保密的创新转向基于专利的创新来增加企业专利，而不是通过减轻财务约束。