How do banks finance R&D intensive firms? The role of patents in overcoming information asymmetry

We examine how banks finance R&D intensive firms, focusing on the role of patents in overcoming information asymmetry in bank lending. Consistent with moral hazard in due diligence and monitoring, we find that lead arrangers retain a larger share of syndicated loans when lending to R&D intensive firms. Patents can partly overcome moral hazard problems, as banks retain a smaller share of R&D intensive firms’ loans if these firms have patents as a signal of the quality of their inventions. Our results are robust to alternative explanatory variable definitions and syndicate structure measures, different samples and subperiods, and difference-in-difference estimations.