#4583. The effect of design protection on price and price dispersion: Evidence from automotive spare parts

August 2026publication date
Proposal available till 19-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
Business, Management and Accounting (all);
Strategy and Management;
Management of Technology and Innovation;
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More details about the manuscript: Science Citation Index Expanded OR/AND Social Sciences Citation Index
Abstract:
The design right is a widely used but poorly understood intellectual property right that allows the protection of products’ aesthetics and outer appearances. We study the influence of design protection on price by exploiting cross-country differences in the scope of protection in the European automotive spare parts market: In some countries, repair parts are exempted from design protection, while in others they are not. Based on detailed price data, our difference-in-differences estimates imply that design protection increases prices by about 5–8%, with large differences between carmakers. We then link our findings to the literature on deviations from the law of one price. We document large cross-country price deviations for identical spare parts and provide evidence that a part of these price deviations can be explained by the lack of harmonization of design protection in combination with carmakers’ pricing-to-market strategies.
Keywords:
Automotive aftermarket; Design patent; Design right; European car market; Law of one price; Price dispersion; Repair clause; Spare parts

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