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Patents and Supra‐Competitive Prices: Evidence From Consumer Products

Gaétan de Rassenfosse & Ling Zhou

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies2026https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.70028article
ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

Abstract

A patent system is a central tool in innovation policy. The prospect of monopolistic pricing supposedly encourages firms to innovate. However, there is scant empirical evidence supporting the existence of higher markups for patent‐protected products. Using an original dataset that links consumer products to the patents that protect them, we study the impact of patent protection on product prices. Exploiting exogenous variations in patent status, we find that a loss of patent protection leads to an 8%–10% drop in product prices. The price drop is larger for more important patents and is more pronounced in more competitive product markets.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.70028

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@article{gaétan2026,
  title        = {{Patents and Supra‐Competitive Prices: Evidence From Consumer Products}},
  author       = {Gaétan de Rassenfosse & Ling Zhou},
  journal      = {Journal of Empirical Legal Studies},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.70028},
}

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Patents and Supra‐Competitive Prices: Evidence From Consumer Products

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.