The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond

Harvard University and Stanford University and Hoover. Both authors are affiliates of the National Bureau of Economic Research. We thank for helpful comments Jean Barrot, Shai Bernstein, Nick Bloom, Umit Gurun, Adam Jaffe, Bill Kerr, Adrien Matray, Scott Stern, Noah Stoffman, Per Stromberg, Xuan Tian, and participants in the American Economic Association annual meetings, and seminars at Cornell University, Harvard University, and the National Bureau of Economics Research. We especially thank Jinpu Yang for thoughtful analysis and outstanding research assistance. We also thank Paul Matsiras, Lilei Xu, and Yao Zeng for excellent research assistance with this paper; and Filippo Mezzanotti for the patent reassignment analysis. Harvard Business School’s Division of Research (Lerner) and Center for Research in Security Prices at University of Chicago (Seru’s previous affiliation) provided financial support. All errors and omissions are our own. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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