Abstract
Using a novel database on prediscovery licensing agreements (one type of R&D cooperation) as well as detailed firm-level and semiconductor market-specific information, we estimate the impact of prediscovery licensing agreements (PDLAs) on innovation and product market efficiency. Our results show that PDLAs reduce innovative activity in the semiconductor industry by 10 percent, or 4089 patents, throughout the 1989–1999 period. On the contrary, research joint ventures (a different type of R&D cooperation) increase innovative activity. Based on a structural model, we provide evidence that PDLAs increase production costs and semiconductor prices by 1 percent, which results in customers paying an additional $1.1 billion for semiconductors per year. Beyond the common concern that R&D cooperations facilitate coordination activities in product markets via price fixing, our study highlights that PDLAs can be used as an instrument to coordinate R&D activities, which can reduce innovation activity and increase costs and prices.
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