Social credit and patent quality: Evidence from China

Abstract

We combine the discredited people database disclosed by the China People’s Supreme Court and the China industry business performance database from 2003 to 2014 and examine the effect of regional social credit on the quality of patents, measured by knowledge breadth. We find that a loss of social credit can result in a significant decline in patent quality. The result remains robust to a series of sensitivity checks, including using the alternative measures of key variables and exploiting the number of missionary universities established since the Opium War as an instrument for social credit. The possible mechanisms for the effect of social credit on patent quality are further verified, including attenuating external financing constraints and enhancing the innovation incentive.