# Tickets to the Global Market:  First US Patents and Chinese Firm Exports

**Source**: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2026/01/tickets-global-market-first-us-patents-and-chinese-firm-exports
**Parent**: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight

[ [Innovation and Entrepreneurship](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/innovation-and-entrepreneurship "Innovation and Entrepreneurship") ]

Tickets to the Global Market:  First US Patents and Chinese Firm Exports

29 Jan 2026

[GONG, Robin](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/gong-robin)

Assistant Professor

[LI, Yao](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/li-yao)

Associate Professor

MANOVA, Kalina

SUN, Stephen Teng

[Read Full Paper](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4874407)

We investigate how international patent activity enables firms from emerging economies to thrive in the global marketplace. We match Chinese customs data to US patent records, and leverage the quasi-random assignment of USPTO patent examiners to identify the causal effect of a US patent grant on the subsequent export performance of Chinese firms. Successful first-time patent applicants achieve significantly higher export growth, compared to otherwise similar first-time applicants that failed. This effect operates only in small part through market protection for technologically patent-related products in the US, and is largely driven by expansion in other markets. The response across destinations and products reveals that a US patent award signals the Chinese firm's capacity to produce high-quality products and credibility to honor contracts, mitigating information frictions in international trade. There is little evidence for the relaxation of financial constraints or the promotion of follow-on innovation.