The Nonlinear Relationship between Intellectual Property Protection and Farmers’ Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Analysis Based on CHFS Data

Abstract

Using data from three rounds of the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2015, 2017 and 2019, this paper analyzes the impact and mechanism of the action of intellectual property protection on farm household entrepreneurship, based on institutional theory. It is found that: an inverted U-shaped relationship is shown between IPR protection and farm household entrepreneurship, but combined with the results of further research on farm household entrepreneurship performance, there is a positive effect of IPR protection and entrepreneurship performance. This indicates that excessive IPR protection, although limiting the number of entrepreneurship, boosts high-quality entrepreneurship; regional investment plays a mediating role between IPR protection and farm household entrepreneurship; and the results for IP protection and farmer opportunity entrepreneurship are the same as the baseline regression but have no significant effect on farmer initiative entrepreneurship, suggesting that IP protection more often increases farmers’ access to entrepreneurship. The above findings expand the application of “protecting intellectual property is protecting innovation” in farmers’ entrepreneurship and provide ideas for the implementation of intellectual property to promote, enrich and strengthen agriculture.