Essays on Innovation

Innovation is the engine of economic growth for developed countries. In my dissertation, I study three different factors that affect firms’ innovation outcome. The first chapter of my dissertation shows that when courts systematically favor plaintiffs over defendants, their biased attitudes stifle innovation and reduce the financial value of innovative firms under their jurisdiction. The second chapter of my dissertation looks at another aspect of innovation output, namely the inventors. I show that inventors who work in cities with higher level of labor market concentration produce more patents while compensating that with lower quality of innovation. The third chapter of my paper shows that in firms where the extensive monitoring is absent; innovation output could also be the outcome of firms’ attempt to time the market.