Human capital and trademarks: Evidence from higher education expansion in China |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America;2. Tilburg School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands;1. Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Management, BNU–HKBU United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China;2. Department of Management, School of Business and Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong;3. Department of International Trade, College of Commerce, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si, Republic of Korea;1. University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, South Africa;2. UNEP - World Conservation Monitoring Centre, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;1. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, United States of America;2. Harvard Business School and NBER, United States of America;3. Harvard University, United States of America;4. Yale University, United States of America |
| |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how human capital affects trademark applications at the firm level. We adopt a difference-in-differences strategy to examine the impact of human capital on trademark applications, taking advantage of a unique natural experiment in China that expanded higher education enrollment substantially in 1999. We find firms in industries with higher human capital intensities filed for more trademarks after 2003 than they did in prior years. We then investigate the mechanism through which human capital enhancement causes more trademark applications. We find that firms in industries with higher human capital intensities tend to invest more in R&D and worker training programs. We next find that firms that spend more on R&D and training programs tend to develop more new products. We also find firms that have more new products file for more trademark applications. The main policy implication of our empirical results is that encouraging human capital enhancement can generate more innovative products and trademarks. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
