Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
大麻市场的合法化与创新
Legalization and innovation in the cannabis market
摘要
How would legal institutions affect the rate and direction of innovation in restricted or illicit markets? This paper studies the impact of legalization on innovation in the cannabis market. We construct novel data and measures on cannabis-related innovation in clinical trials and patent applications at the state-year level. We use staggered difference-in-differences models and event studies to analyze the impacts of medical and recreational cannabis legalization (MCL and RCL, respectively) on innovation. We find no evidence that cannabis-related clinical trials respond to MCLs or RCLs. However, there is a marked increase in cannabis-related patenting ( ∼ 4.4 patents) in response to an RCL and more modest impacts from an MCL ( ∼ 1.4 patents). Notably, additional RCL-induced patents are focused primarily on downstream products and methods rather than upstream medical innovation; MCL impacts show a similar pattern. Our further analysis of patent content suggests significant growth in areas that may raise public health, safety, and misuse concerns. These results suggest that legalization increases innovation in the cannabis market, but with relatively weak gains in areas pertinent to health and safe use. We corroborate our findings with multiple new empirical methods in the literature.
中文摘要
法律制度如何影响受限或非法市场中的创新速率与方向？本文研究了合法化对大麻市场创新的影响。我们构建了州-年层面关于大麻相关临床试验和专利申请的新颖数据与度量指标。采用交错双重差分模型和事件研究法，分析医用大麻合法化（MCL）和娱乐用大麻合法化（RCL）对创新的影响。研究发现，没有证据表明大麻相关临床试验对MCL或RCL有所响应。然而，RCL显著增加了大麻相关专利申请（约4.4项），而MCL的影响则较为温和（约1.4项）。值得注意的是，RCL额外激发的专利主要集中在下游产品和方法上，而非上游医学创新；MCL的影响也呈现类似模式。对专利内容的进一步分析表明，在可能引发公共健康、安全及滥用担忧的领域出现了显著增长。这些结果表明，合法化促进了大麻市场的创新，但在与健康和安全使用相关的领域增益相对较弱。我们通过文献中的多种新实证方法验证了上述发现。