The Effect of Intellectual Property Rights Protection on Stock Price Informativeness

Abstract We examine whether intellectual property protection facilitates the greater incorporation of firm-specific information into the stock price. Employing the staggered, country-level adoption of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), we find that after adoption, stock prices become less synchronous, consistent with more firm-specific information being impounded into the stock price. We further show that this effect is more pronounced for more innovative firms, firms in countries with stronger law enforcement, and firms with more financial analyst coverage. Finally, we document that TRIPS induces a richer information environment characterized by more management forecasts and media coverage.