Dr. David Heller

Senior Research Fellow

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research

+49 89 24246-565
david.heller(at)ip.mpg.de

Areas of Interest:

Economics of Innovation, Innovation and Science Policy, Corporate Finance, (particularly Innovation- and SME finance), Applied Industrial Organization, Microeconometrics

Academic Résumé

Seit 10/2019
Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research)

10/2014 - 09/2019
Research Assistant and Doctoral Candidate, Goethe University Frankfurt

02/2019 - 06/2019
Visiting Scholar, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, US

10/2012 - 09/2014
International Economics and Economic Policy (M.Sc.), Goethe University Frankfurt

02/2010 - 09/2010
Exchange Semester, Universitat de València, Spain

09/2008 - 10/2012
Foreign Trade and International Management (B.A.), Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (HAW), Hamburg

Work Experience

01/2017 - 07/2017
Research Intern, Research Data and Service Center (RDSC), Deutsche Bundesbank

10/2014 - 11/2014
Lecturer and Teaching Assistant, Vietnamese German University (VGU), Ho-Chi-Minh-City, Vietnam

02/2014 - 06/2014
Research Intern, Department ‘Labour, Education, Demography’, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI), Hamburg

09/2013 - 10/2014
Research Assistant, Chair of Industrial Organization, Goethe University Frankfurt

03/2011 - 09/2011
Intern, Strategic Data Analyst in der Abteilung ‘Sales Steering & Controlling’, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Los Angeles, US

Honors, Scholarships, Academic Prizes

2019
Foundation ‘Freunde und Förderer der Goethe-Universität’

2018
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration ‘Forschungstopf’

2017
European Patent Office Academic Research Programme (ARP), Head of Project Team ‘Financing Innovation in Europe’

2010
Erasmus Scholarship

Publications

Discussion Papers

Ciaramella, Laurie; Heller, David; Leitzinger, Leo (2023). Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral. DOI

  • This study provides a first comprehensive picture of the use of intellectual property (IP) as loan collateral, its determinants, and its effect on firm trajectories. Using novel administrative data, we exploit the French institutional setting and show that firms from diverse industries use selected trademarks (72%), patents (26%), and designs (2%) to secure loans. We find that IP pledges have large positive effects on debt financing, in particular for small, financially constrained firms. The results are robust to exogenous variation in the pledgeability of alternative collateral. Further, using IP as loan collateral is associated with sizable increases in firm-level growth.

Gill, Andrej; Heller, David (2022). Leveraging Intellectual Property: The Value of Harmonized Enforcement Regimes.

  • We provide new evidence on how intellectual property (IP) rights support external debt financing by investigating exogenous variation in patent right enforcement. Deploying a unique, large-scale sample of European firms, we exploit the 2004 EU Enforcement Directive, a major legislative change strengthening IP rights across Europe, as identifying event. Results show that firms with valuable patent portfolios disproportionally increase debt financing by about 21%. Effects are particularly pronounced for private SMEs, ex-ante financially constrained firms, and in competitive environments. Adding previously undisclosed patent collateral information provides suggestive evidence that enhanced IP enforcement benefits debt financing beyond a mere collateral channel.
  • Available at SSRN
  • Earlier version published under the title: Leverage Intellectual Property: The Value of Harmonized Enforcement Regimes - 2019

Heller, David; Leitzinger, David; Walz, Uwe (2022). Intellectual Property as Business Loan Collateral: A Taxonomy on Institutional and Economic Determinants. DOI

  • Using intellectual property rights (IPR) as collateral to secure debt financing can form a promising strategy, in particular for small, financially constrained firms. Despite an ongoing shift to a more technology-based economy, the collateralizing of IPR is still trailing behind the use of traditional asset classes. In this paper, we develop a new taxonomy on the key determinants of using IPR as collateral. The taxonomy defines two pillars that govern the use of IPR collateral that distinguish between institutional and economic factors. The institutional pillar covers contract law, IPR registries, and banking regulation. We apply the taxonomy to the current legal and economic states in several industrialized economies to identify potential impediments to IPR-backed debt financing. The economic pillar constitutes the influence of IPR characteristics on the trade-off between the economic costs and benefits of collateralizing IPR. We propose that IPR collateral can have significant advantages regarding signaling, agency issues, and the creation of pledgable income. Based on these considerations we derive several testable hypotheses on the circumstances under which IPR collateral might be particularly well-suited to attract debt financing. Taken together, our taxonomy can be viewed as the foundation for future research on IPR as loan collateral for businesses.

Gill, Andrej; Heller, David (2019). Leverage Intellectual Property: The Value of Harmonized Enforcement Regimes, Proceedings of Paris December 2019 Finance Meeting EUROFIDAI - ESSEC 2019.

  • This paper analyses the importance of intellectual property in determining capital structure decisions. We argue that firms can use their patent stock as collateral and thereby relax possible debt financing restrictions. Using data from the European Patent Office and balance sheet data of European companies, we find that larger and more valuable patent stocks lead to higher debt-ratios - controlling for well-established capital structure determinants. We further assess variation across as well as within industries and show that effects are mainly driven by tech-oriented and research intensive firms. Drawing on a legislative change in EU- law, allows us to establish a causal relationship between firms' patent portfolio and their use of debt. Results provide a new perspective on optimal capital structure decisions. From a policy perspective, our findings suggest to further harmonize enforcement rules on intellectual property to support financially constrained, innovative firms.
  • Available at SSRN
  • Later version published under the title: Leveraging Intellectual Property: The Value of Harmonized Enforcement Regimes - 2022

Presentations and Lectures

13.11.2023
The Marginal Income per Patent and the Mobility of Inventive Labor
Innovation Seminar, LMU
Location: Munich


13.10.2023
The Rise of Early-Stage Financing in the U.S. and Startup Performance
5th ZEW/CoDE Conference on the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship, ZEW Mannheim
Location: Mannheim


28.09.2023
The Rise of Early-Stage Financing in the U.S. and Startup Performance
26th Annual Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SMEs, TU Darmstadt
Location: Darmstadt


21.09.2023
The Rise of Early-Stage Financing in the U.S. and Startup Performance
26th Annual Meeting of the German Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (TIE), Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Location: Frankfurt


07.07.2023
The Rise of Early-Stage Financing in the U.S. and Startup Performance
7th Entrepreneurial Finance Association Conference (ENTFIN), University of Antwerp
Location: Antwerp, The Netherlands


20.06.2023
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral
Barcelona Summer Forum, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics
Location: Barcelona, Spain


15.05.2023
The Formal Granting of Intellectual Property and External Financing
Strategy & Innovation Seminar, Question School of Business, Boston University
Location: Boston, USA


26.04.2023
The Formal Granting of Intellectual Property and External Financing
Strategy Seminar, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah
Location: Utah, USA


22.02.2023
The Formal Granting of Intellectual Property and External Financing
TPRI Brown Bag Seminar, Boston University
Location: Boston, USA


03.02.2023
The Formal Granting of Intellectual Property and External Financing
Workshop on Behavioral, Digital, and Financial Economics
Location: Hirschegg, Austria


17.01.2023
The Formal Granting of Intellectual Property and External Financing
Behavioral & Empirical Work In Progress (BEWIP) Seminar, TUM
Location: Munich


19.12.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral
8th Paris Financial Management Conference
Location: Paris, France


15.12.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral
20th Paris December Finance Meeting
Location: Paris, France


05.12.2022
The Formal Granting of Intellectual Property Rights and External Financing
Innovation Seminar, LMU
Location: Munich


03.11.2022
The Labor Economics of Inventing: Estimating the Marginal Income per Patent
9th ZEW/MaCCI Conference on the Economics of Innovation and Patenting (INNOPAT), ZEW Mannheim
Location: Mannheim


30.10.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral: Evidence from France
28th Annual Meeting of the German Finance Association, Philipps-Universität Marburg
Location: Marburg


15.09.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral: Evidence from France
17th Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP), Cambridge University
Location: Cambrige, UK


13.07.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral: Evidence from France
TIME Seminar, Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization (ISTO), LMU
Location: Munich


04.07.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral: Evidence from France,
16th Annual Meeting of The Risk, Banking and Finance Society
Location: Bari, Italy


10.03.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral
Seminar at the Department of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics
Ort Bergen, Norway


12.01.2022
Intellectual Property as Loan Collateral
Finance Brown Bag Seminar, Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Location: Frankfurt


15.12.2021
Enabler, Accelerator, or Extractor? Venture Capitalists and Firm Patenting
Ideas Crunch, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Location: online


27. – 28.07.2021
Small and Vulnerable? Financial Constraints during the Financial Crisis
The 11th RCEA Money Macro & Finance Conference
Location: online


22.10.2020
Borrowing Against the (Un)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
2nd Conference on Behavioural Research in Finance, University of Giessen
Location: online


30.09.2020
Borrowing Against the (Un)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
Verein für Socialpolitik - Jahrestagung, University of Cologne
Location: online


09.09.2020
Borrowing Against the (Un)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
Corporate Finance Day, HEC Liège
Location: online


27.08.2020
Borrowing Against the (Un)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
13th Annual Conference on Innovation Economics, Northwestern University, Chicago, US
Location: online


25.08.2020
Borrowing Against the (Un)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
European Economics Association (EEA) Conference 2020, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Location: online


19.07.2020
No Pressure, No Diamonds? Financial Market Integration, Financing Constraints, and Their Quantity-Quality Effects on Innovation
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) 2020 Conference, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Location: online


14.02.2020
On the History of the German Patent System
Goethe University Annual Colloquium
Location: Hirschegg, Austria


19.12.2019
Borrowing Against the (Un)Known
Paris Finance Meeting
Location: Paris, France


02.12.2019
Financing Innovation in Europe
Workshop, European Patent Office ARP Programme
Location: Munich


11.11.2019
Borrowing Against the (Un)Known
Innovation Workshop, LMU Munich
Location: Munich


29.10.2019
Intangibles and Leverage: The Role of Patent Portfolios
Seminar, Johannes-Gutenberg University of Mainz
Location: Mainz


09.2019
Financing Innovation in Europe
2019 Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP), ETH Zurich
Location: Zurich, Switzerland


09.2019
Intangibles and Leverage: The Role of Patent Portfolios
20th Annual Symposium of the German Economic Association of Business Administration (GEABA), WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
Location: Vallendar


08.2019
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Invention
46th Annual Conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE), Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Location: Barcelona, Spain


06.2019
A Machine Learning Analysis of The Geographic Localization of Knowledge Flows
12th Annual Conference on Innovation Economics, Searle Center, Northwestern University
Location: Chicago, IL, US


06.2019
Intangibles and Leverage: The Role of Patent Portfolios
International Risk Management Conferenct, Bocconi Universiy
Location: Milan, Italy


05.2019
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Invention
Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
Location: Ann Arbour, MI, US


29.03.2019
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Inventions
Seminar, New York University, Stern School of Business
Location: New York City, US


15.01.2019
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Inventions
Seminar, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies
Location: Regensburg


13.12.2018
Intangibles and Leverage: The Role of Patent Portfolios
Seminar, Goethe University Frankfurt
Location: Frankfurt


13.11.2018
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Inventions
Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
Location: Munich


10.2018
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Inventions
International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, University of Bari
Location: Bari, Italy


07.2018
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Inventions
6th International Ph.D. Meeting in Economics, University of Macedonia
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece


28.06.2018
Financing Innovation in Europe
Workshop, European Patent Office ARP Programme
Location: Munich


16.04.2018
The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Inventions
CBE Seminar, Norwegian School of Economics
Location: Bergen, Norway


10.02.2018
SME Finance During the Great Recession
Kolloquium, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
Location: Kleinwalsertal, Austria

Courses

Goethe University Frankfurt
Advanced Microeconomic Theory (Ph.D. Course)
Introduction to Industrial Organization
Microeconomics I
Economics of Innovation (undergraduate)

Seminar Supervision
“Economics of Digitalization” (2018)
“Business Strategy on the Road” (2017)
“Finance Meets the Real World” (2015)

Thesis Supervision
23 Bachelor and 4 Master Theses

Other Institutions and Guest Lectures
R&D and Intellectual Property (graduate– Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen)
Introduction to Competition Theory (MBA – Frankfurt School of Finance & Management)
Bank Management (MBA – Goethe Business School, Frankfurt)
Management I (undergraduate– Vietnamese German University)

Working Papers

The Impact of Financial Resources on Corporate Inventions

Intellectual Property and Leverage: The Role of Patent Portfolios

Disequilibrium in the Loan Market: Evidence from the Financial Crisis

Financial Integration, Financing Constraints, and Innovation in Europe: Is More Better?