Stern, Ariel2023-04-192017-01Stern, Ariel Dora. "Innovation Under Regulatory Uncertainty: Evidence from Medical Technology." Journal of Public Economics 145 (January 2017): 181–200.0047-2727https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37374850This paper explores how the regulatory approval process affects innovation incentives in medical technologies. Prior studies have found early mover regulatory advantages for drugs. I find the opposite for medical devices, where pioneer entrants spend 34% (7.2 months) longer than follow-on entrants in regulatory approval. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the cost of a delay of this length is upwards of 7% of the total cost of bringing a new high-risk device to market. Considering potential explanations, I find that approval times are largely unrelated to technological novelty but are meaningfully reduced by the publication of objective regulatory guidelines. Finally, I consider how the regulatory process affects small firms' market entry patterns and find that small firms are less likely to be pioneers in new device markets, a fact consistent with relatively higher costs of doing so for more financially constrained firms.en-USEconomics and EconometricsFinanceJournal Article2023-04-1910.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.11.010