Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/237587 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
UCD Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series No. WP21/09
Publisher: 
University College Dublin, UCD Centre for Economic Research, Dublin
Abstract: 
Patent boxes significantly reduce the corporate tax rate applied to income earned from a patent. This incentivizes firms to increase the likelihood of a patent application being granted by creating more novel research and using more successful legal representation when filing the application. Conversely, it supports submitting applications for marginally novel innovations that otherwise would not have been submitted, lowering the probability of success. We use data from applications to the European Patent Office from 1978 to 2019 and find that the introduction of a patent box increases the average success rate of applications from large, corporate innovators by 6.9 percentage points. This impact only materializes two years after a patent box takes effect, suggesting that improved research effort is the dominant response by firms. Therefore patent boxes may help to increase innovation novelty and improve the overall quality of research.
Subjects: 
Patent Box
Patents
Application Success
Corporate Taxation
JEL: 
H25
O31
O32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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