We examine the effect of entry by French firms into a new export market on the dynamics of their patents' citations received from that destination. Applying a difference-in-differences identification strategy with a staggered treatment design, we show that: (i) entering a new foreign market has a significant impact on the long-run flow of citations; (ii) the impact is mostly
driven by the extensive margin; (iii) inventors in destination countries patent mostly in products that do not directly compete with those of the exporting firm; (iv) the spillover intensity decreases with the technological distance between the exporting firm and the destination.
JEL classification: O33, O34, O40, F10, F14
Keywords: International Trade, Spillover, Innovation, Patent
Philippe Aghion, Antonin Bergeaud, Timothee Gigout, Matthieu Lequien and Marc J. Melitz
11 December 2023 Paper Number POIDWP087
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