PHILIPP BOEING
CURRENT RESEARCH (SELECTION)
The Misuse of China's R&D Subsidies: Estimating Treatment Effects With One-Sided Non-compliance
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(with B. Peters)
We investigate the misuse of R&D subsidies and evaluate its consequences for policy effectiveness. Developing a theoretical framework and using Chinese firm-level data for 2001-2011, we identify that 42% of grantees misappropriated R&D subsidies for non-R&D purposes, accounting for 53% of total R&D subsidies. Misuse leads to a substantial loss in the causal impact of R&D subsidies, as measured by the difference between the intention-to-treat and complier average causal effect. R&D expenditures could have been stimulated beyond the subsidy amount (additionality), but misuse (noncompliance) resulted in medium-level partial crowding out, reducing the effectiveness of China’s R&D policy by more than half.
The Anatomy of Chinese Innovation: Insights on Patent Quality and Ownership Funded by BMBF
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(with L. Brandt, R. Dai, K. Lim, B. Peters)
We study the evolution of patenting in China from 1985-2019. We use a Large Language Model to measure patent importance based on patent abstracts and classify patent ownership using a comprehensive business registry. We highlight four insights. First, average patent importance declined from 2000-2010 but has increased more recently. Second, private Chinese firms account for most of patenting growth whereas overseas patentees have played a diminishing role. Third, patentees have greatly reduced their dependence on foreign knowledge. Finally, Chinese and foreign patentinghave become more similar in technological composition, but differences persist within technology classes as revealed by abstract similarities.
Technological Influence of Inventions: Analyzing Countries in Global Comparison (2nd revise & resubmit with Research Policy) Funded by BMBF
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(with E. Mueller)
In a changing global geoeconomic environment, measuring technological influence is critical for evidence-based policy making. Using citations from the universe of PCT patent applications, we develop an empirical measure of technological influence that assesses the bilateral and global influence of inventions across countries. We examine the technological influence of Europe, the US, China, Japan, and Korea between 2000 and 2020 and highlight four insights. First, the US shows technological independence through its leadership in bilateral and global influence. Second, the US and Europe are highly integrated, but their global positions differ due to Europe’s bilateral dependence on all countries except China. Third, while Japan has recently declined from its former leading position, Korea has maintained a moderate global influence. Finally, although China has filed the most patents in recent years, its dependence on all other countries amounts to the highest global dependence.