Dynamics of first-time patenting firms

This paper investigates the dynamics of young firms in the period before and after their first-time patent application. The analysis is based on patent data from the Norwegian Industrial Property Office merged with data from several business registers covering a period of almost 20 years. We apply an event study design, supported by descriptive analyses, to assess the short- and long-term effects of patenting and use matching to control for confounding factors. Our results accord with the view that a young firm's innovation strategy, including how much to invest in R&D, is conceived before the intellectual property right is established. Furthermore, our results suggest that patenting exerts a lasting influence on the firm's R&D activity and impacts economic outcomes more broadly.