Patenting-promoting policies and regional utility patent output: Evidence from provincial level data

The aim of this paper is to study the impact of the public patenting-promoting policies on patent output at provincial level. Time-series cross-section data from 31 provinces of mainland China between 1999 and 2012 are used to perform panel analyses. Following two national public policies released around 2006, regional utility patent output have been striding forward in the quantity (utility patent application) and quality (utility patent granted). Exploiting the difference before (1999-2005) and after (2006-2012) policies by using the Paired-Samples T-test, the result shows that the public patenting-promoting policies contribute a lot to the motivation for regional utility patenting activities. Taking into account influential factors for regional utility patent output, the regression results show patenting-promoting policies, R&D expenditures, technology market turnover, educational standards, market structure and marketization index are positive and significant account for the contribution. Furthermore, the different significant level of patenting-promoting policies shows that the policies are more effective to improve patent quantity (utility patent application) than patent quality (utility patent granted).