Air pollution and innovation

Existing estimates of the economic costs of air pollution do not account for its effect on inventive output. Using two weather phenomena as instruments, we estimate this effect in a sample of 1,288 European regions. A decrease in exposure to small particulate matter of 0.17µg/m3 - the average yearly reduction in Europe - leads to 1.7% more patented inventions. After ruling out reallocation of human capital, inventor mortality and R&D expenditures as drivers of the effect, we conclude that air pollution's harm to economic output increases by at least 10% when accounting for innovation

The signaling value of legal form in debt financing

We examine if a startup's legal form choice is used as a signal by credit providers to infer its risk to default on a loan. We propose that choosing a legal form with low minimum capital requirements signals higher default risk. Arguably, small relationship banks are more likely to use legal form as a screening device when deciding on a loan. Using data from Orbis and the IAB/ZEW Start-up Panel for a sample of German firms, we find evidence consistent with our hypotheses but inconsistent with predictions of several competing explanations, including differential demand for debt or growth opportunities

Patent collateral and access to debt

We investigate how intangible capital in form of intellectual property, such as patents, might mitigate financing constraints. While scholars have already argued that patents might have a signalling value reducing information asymmetries between borrowers and lenders, we quantify the value of using patents as collateral with regard to capital access. Although this mechanism of patents in financing further R&D is not new, we are the first to provide a treatment effects study of patent collateral and access to capital. We make use of mandatory collateral registry data in Sweden and the Netherlands to construct panels combining firm-level financial data and patent measures. Estimating conditional difference-in-difference regressions on firms' debt allows deducting treatment effects of using patents as collateral. We find that patent pledging enables Swedish (Dutch) firms to borrow about 21% (26%) more than in the counterfactual situation in which no patents would have been used as collateral. We also find that the collateral value of patents is higher than their signalling value, and a back-of-the-envelope scenario calculation shows that Dutch (Swedish) firms could raise more than € 7 (€ 10) billion additional debt capital if the complete patent portfolios would be pledged, all else constant

Patents as Loan Collateral in Sweden : An empirical analysis of what patent characteristics matter for collateralization

This study analyses empirically what patent characteristics matter for collateralization. In accordance with the finance literature, loan collateral is determined by the liquidation value of the asset which in turn depends on the three factors "physical attributes of the asset", "number of alternative users" and "financial strength of alternative users". Hence, the study is focusing on patent characteristics influencing the three factors of the liquidation value. To control for firm effects of the patent pledging firms, a treatment group of pledged patents and a comparison group of unpledged patents have been matched based on firm characteristics of the patent owner. The subsequent empirical analysis revealed that patent characteristics related to the physical attributes of patents enhancing their redeployability matter for collateralization. Patent characteristics related to the market liquidity measuring the financial strength of alternative users, are insignificant. Furthermore, the study confirms the additional function of patents as source of finance by offering them for loan collateral. Especially small and young firms, scare of tangible assets pledge patents for receiving debt finance

Correspondence : Bracht (Felix) and Engelmann (George), 1873.

Bracht to Engelmann, 187