Josh Lerner

Jacob H. Schiff Professor at Harvard Business School and co-director of the HBS Private Capital Project. His research focuses on venture capital, private equity, innovation, and public policy; he co-authored research on Chinese patenting and innovation.

China’s Patent Boom Reflects Broad, Improving Innovation, Study Finds

Josh Lerner and Amit Seru argue that China’s innovation surge is real: their analysis of millions of patents finds activity across critical technologies, rising patent quality and a system built largely on homegrown talent—not just a few favored companies. They also find that universities and smaller firms play a larger role in China than in the United States. Their findings, discussed with Steven Davis, challenge accounts that reduce China’s progress to imitation or subsidies and sharpen the question of how the US can compete without weakening its own research and innovation system.

Hoover InstitutionOct 28, 202612 min read