Research

Stronger patent law increases the allocation of resources to external relative to internal R&D: Empirical evidence

Yun Hou, Xi Xiong, Ivan P.L. Png
Research Policy · 55.10 (2026), 105601

Stronger patent protection shifts technology firms’ resources toward external R&D, which rose 35% versus 20% for internal R&D, especially among technologically specialized firms and industries with patents being less effective.

Directing environmental innovation toward radical clean technologies for sustainable transitions: Market-based vs. command-and-control policies

Gebhardt, Sebastian, Yun Hou, and Masaru Yarime
Research Policy · 55.4 (2026), 105446

Across 17 EU countries (1991–2020), market-based environmental policies spurred radical clean-technology innovation while command-and-control regulation had no significant effect.

"I Wouldn’t Really Use It as a Practice Tool": Understanding Medical Students’ Perspectives and Needs on LLM-Enhanced Clinical Skills Training

Yuru Huang, Chao Liu, Yunna Cai, Lina Xu, Yun Hou, Mingming Fan
Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’26) · April 13–17, 2026 · Barcelona, Spain

Medical students find current LLM-based clinical-skills training insufficiently realistic and want richer patient modeling, personalized content, and stronger guidance and feedback.

When stronger patent law reduces patenting: Empirical evidence

Yun Hou, Ivan P.L. Png, Xi Xiong
Strategic Management Journal · 44.4 (2023): 977–1012
Replication package

Stronger patent protection led firms in complex industries to cut strategic patenting by 23.3%. As each patent becomes more effective, the marginal value of holding strategic patents falls.

The Federal Circuit enriched patent owners without eliciting better inventions

Yun Hou, Ivan P.L. Png, Xi Xiong
Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal · 31 (2023): 295–326
Replication package

The Federal Circuit’s pro-patentee shift raised the commercial value of patents by 11.7% but not their technological quality—strengthening the patent monopoly without eliciting better inventions.