Pricing innovation: The anchoring effect in patent valuation

Abstract

Prior literature has long recognized the substantial economic value that patents hold in the market. Yet, we know much less about the valuation process, i.e., how market audiences estimate (or determine) the value of newly granted patents. Building on behavioral economics, we propose the anchoring effect as an important cognitive mechanism, such that a patent's valuation is anchored on the value that preceding patents have secured. Analyzing financial valuation of U.S. patents between 1991 and 2010, we find broad support to the anchoring effect. The effect is more pronounced when focal patents are of lower novelty, when prior anchors are more consistent, and when focal firms have a higher patenting frequency. Furthermore, our extensional analysis suggests that anchoring acts as an important driver for the divergence between patents' economic value and scientific quality, which deserves attention from firms and policy makers.