IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v87y2024ics1043951x24001548.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intensified law enforcement and firm innovation: Evidence from China's antitrust consolidation

Author

Listed:
  • Zhu, Jialiang
  • Gu, Jinnan

Abstract

This paper examines the significant transformation in China's antitrust regulatory framework following the consolidation of its three primary antitrust agencies the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) into the State Administration for Market Supervision (SAMR). Utilizing data from publicly listed firms across various industries, we analyze how firms in highly concentrated industries have adapted to this consolidation, by increasing the R&D investment, patent filing, and total factor productivity (TFP). Our mechanism channel indicates that stricter enforcement actions and fines by SAMR have spurred competition and innovation, with effects that are comparably significant across both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms. The paper contributes to the literature by providing an empirical assessment of the effects of this major restructuring within China's Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) enforcement. Our findings shed light on the broader implications of regulatory consolidations on firm innovation, offering insights into the efficacy of such transformations in antitrust policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu, Jialiang & Gu, Jinnan, 2024. "Intensified law enforcement and firm innovation: Evidence from China's antitrust consolidation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:87:y:2024:i:c:s1043951x24001548
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102265
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X24001548
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102265?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan B. Baker, 2003. "The Case for Antitrust Enforcement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(4), pages 27-50, Fall.
    2. Zhang, Ming & Zhao, Yingxue, 2023. "Does environmental regulation spur innovation? Quasi-natural experiment in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Philippe Aghion & Antonin Bergeaud & John Van Reenen, 2023. "The Impact of Regulation on Innovation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(11), pages 2894-2936, November.
    4. Zhang, Xiaoqian & Yu, Mingqiang & Chen, Gaoquan, 2020. "Does mixed-ownership reform improve SOEs' innovation? Evidence from state ownership," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    5. Manne, Geoffrey & Wright, Joshua, 2011. "Innovation and the Limits of Antitrust," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 1-19.
    6. Mann, Jeoffrey & Wright, Joshua, 2010. "Innovation and the Limits of antitrust," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 6, pages 99-123.
    7. Volker Nocke & Michael D. Whinston, 2022. "Concentration Thresholds for Horizontal Mergers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(6), pages 1915-1948, June.
    8. Kovacic, William E., 2017. "Competition Policy and State-Owned Enterprises in China," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 693-711, October.
    9. Ilya Segal & Michael D. Whinston, 2007. "Antitrust in Innovative Industries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1703-1730, December.
    10. Paolo Buccirossi & Lorenzo Ciari & Tomaso Duso & Giancarlo Spagnolo & Cristiana Vitale, 2013. "Competition Policy and Productivity Growth: An Empirical Assessment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1324-1336, October.
    11. Kwon, Seokbeom & Marco, Alan C., 2021. "Can antitrust law enforcement spur innovation? Antitrust regulation of patent consolidation and its impact on follow-on innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    12. Mann, William, 2018. "Creditor rights and innovation: Evidence from patent collateral," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 25-47.
    13. Philippe Aghion & Nick Bloom & Richard Blundell & Rachel Griffith & Peter Howitt, 2005. "Competition and Innovation: an Inverted-U Relationship," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 701-728.
    14. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    15. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    16. Dyck, Alexander & Lins, Karl V. & Roth, Lukas & Wagner, Hannes F., 2019. "Do institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 693-714.
    17. Chen, Guowen & Herrera, Ana María & Lugauer, Steven, 2022. "Policy and misallocation: Evidence from Chinese firm-level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    18. Coad, Alex & Segarra, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2016. "Innovation and firm growth: Does firm age play a role?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 387-400.
    19. Robert W. Crandall & Clifford Winston, 2005. "Does antitrust policy improve consumer welfare? Assessing the evidence," Chapters, in: Colin Robinson (ed.), Governments, Competition and Utility Regulation, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Huayu Shen & Mengyao Fu & Hongyu Pan & Zhongfu Yu & Yongquan Chen, 2020. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Firm Performance," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2213-2230, August.
    21. Edwin Mansfield, 1963. "Size of Firm, Market Structure, and Innovation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(6), pages 556-556.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yihao Chen & Siying Ding & Yongzheng Liu & Guangliang Ye, 2024. "Competition policy and firm productivity: Quasi‐experimental evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 2236-2263, June.
    2. Cavenaile, Laurent & Celik, Murat Alp & Tian, Xu, 2021. "The Dynamic Effects of Antitrust Policy on Growth and Welfare," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 42-59.
    3. Paolo Buccirossi & Lorenzo Ciari & Tomaso Duso & Giancarlo Spagnolo & Cristiana Vitale, 2013. "Competition Policy and Productivity Growth: An Empirical Assessment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1324-1336, October.
    4. Yang, Xingquan & Zhang, Kexin & Liao, Guanmin & Gao, Pengfei, 2024. "Administrative monopoly and state-owned enterprise innovation: Evidence from the fair competition review system in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    5. Jo Seldeslachts & Joseph A. Clougherty & Pedro Pita Barros, 2009. "Settle for Now but Block for Tomorrow: The Deterrence Effects of Merger Policy Tools," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(3), pages 607-634, August.
    6. Kalyn Coatney & Jesse Tack, 2014. "The Impacts of an Antitrust Investigation: A Case Study in Agriculture," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(4), pages 423-441, June.
    7. Francesco Daveri & Rémy Lecat & Maria Laura Parisi, 2016. "Service Deregulation, Competition, and the Performance of French and Italian Firms," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 63(3), pages 278-302, July.
    8. Joseph A. Clougherty & Jo Seldeslachts, 2013. "The Deterrence Effects of US Merger Policy Instruments," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(5), pages 1114-1144, October.
    9. Liu, Qing & Ma, Hong, 2020. "Trade policy uncertainty and innovation: Firm level evidence from China’s WTO accession," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    10. Clougherty, Joseph A. & Duso, Tomaso & Lee, Miyu & Seldeslachts, Jo, 2016. "Effective European Antitrust : Does EC Merger Policy Generate Deterrence?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 1884-1903.
    11. Benavente, Jose Miguel & Zuniga, Pluvia, 2021. "How does market competition affect firm innovation incentives in emerging countries? Evidence from Latin American firms," MERIT Working Papers 2021-024, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Wang, Shuxun & Wu, Kai & Lai, Seiwai, 2022. "Acquisition for innovations? M&A intensity and intra-firm innovation reallocations," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    13. Daniel Gonçalves & Ana Martins, 2016. "The Determinants of TFP Growth in the Portuguese Manufacturing Sector," GEE Papers 0062, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Nov 2016.
    14. Sumit K. Majumdar & Rabih Moussawi & Ulku Yaylacicegi, 2019. "Mergers and Wages in Digital Networks: a Public Interest Perspective," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 583-615, December.
    15. Ma, Yeqing & Ni, Yining & Meng, Ning, 2024. "Financial development and the impact of FDI on firm innovation: Evidence from bank deregulation in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Dai, Yanke & Du, Ting & Gao, Huasheng & Gu, Yan & Wang, Yongqin, 2024. "Patent pledgeability, trade secrecy, and corporate patenting," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    17. Nicholas Apergis & Vasilios Monastiriotis, 2013. "Price Concentration: New Evidence from Greek Industries and the Cournot Model," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 265-271, June.
    18. Sukhdeep Singh & Indrani Chakraborty, 2021. "Growth of the Firms and Investments in Innovations: An Empirical Investigation of the Indian Manufacturing Industry," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(1), pages 87-122, March.
    19. Svetlana B. Avdasheva & Dina V. Tsytsulina, 2014. "The Effects Of Competition Policy: Merger Approval, Entry Barrier Removal, Antitrust Enforcement Compared," HSE Working papers WP BRP 34/FE/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    20. Kaplow, Louis & Shapiro, Carl, 2007. "Antitrust," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 1073-1225, Elsevier.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:87:y:2024:i:c:s1043951x24001548. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.