When Does Product Liability Risk Chill Innovation? Evidence from Medical Implants
中文摘要
旨在对缺陷产品所致损害予以赔偿的责任法也可能影响创新。我们利用美国医用植入物制造所用聚合物的供应商所面临的责任风险的一次重大准外生上升来考察这一问题。双重差分分析表明，供应商责任风险的这一激增对医用植入物领域的下游创新产生了较大的负向影响，但对上游聚合物的专利申请活动没有显著影响。我们的研究结果表明，责任风险可以在整条纵向链条中传导，并可能对下游创新产生显著的寒蝉效应。(JEL K13, L64, L65, O31, O34)
Abstract
Liability laws designed to compensate for harms caused by defective products may also affect innovation. We examine this issue by exploiting a major quasi-exogenous increase in liability risk faced by US suppliers of polymers used to manufacture medical implants. Difference-in-difference analyses show that this surge in suppliers’ liability risk had a large and negative impact on downstream innovation in medical implants, but it had no signifi-cant effect on upstream polymer patenting. Our findings suggest that liability risk can percolate throughout a vertical chain and may have a significant chilling effect on downstream innovation. (JEL K13, L64, L65, O31, O34)