Dr. David Heller
Senior Research Fellow
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research
+49 89 24246-565
david.heller(at)ip.mpg.de
Personal Website
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
(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
(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
22.10.2020
Borrowing Against the (U)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
2nd Conference on Behavioural Research in Finance, University of Giessen
Location: online
30.09.2020
Borrowing Against the (U)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
Verein für Socialpolitik - Jahrestagung, University of Cologne
Location: online
09.09.2020
Borrowing Against the (U)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
Corporate Finance Day, HEC Liège
Location: online
07.09.2020
Updates on Patenting and Corporate Finance
Research Seminar
Location: online (Munich)
27.08.2020
Borrowing Against the (U)Known: The Value of Patent Portfolios
13th Annual Conference on Innovation Economics, Northwestern University, Chicago, US
Location: online
25.08.2020
Borrowing Against the (U)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
05.03.2020
New Firm-Level Data on Firms’ Financials – a Research Outlook
Research Seminar
Location: Zugspitze
14.02.2020
On the History of the German Patent System
Goethe University Annual Colloquium
Location: Hirschegg, Austria
19.12.2019
Borrowing Against the (U)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 (U)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
46 th 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?