Date of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Moore School of Business

Director of Thesis

Dr. William R. Hauk, Jr.

Second Reader

Dr. David Hudgens

Abstract

This thesis examines the domestic innovation effects of the October 2022 U.S. semiconductor export controls, focusing on the tradeoff between national security objectives and firm-level competitiveness. By restricting exports of advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, these controls may limit cross-border revenue opportunities and natural channels of knowledge transfer. However, the innovation response of affected firms is theoretically ambiguous: reduced access to foreign markets may depress revenues and lead firms to scale back R&D expenditures as a percentage of gross revenue, thus dampening innovation intensity, or, alternatively, firms may sustain or even increase R&D allocations to overcome trade barriers, preserve technological leadership, and adapt to a more fragmented global market. To test these competing hypotheses, this study employs an econometric difference-in-differences framework, estimating the effect of treatment status—exposure to the October 2022 controls—on two firm-level outcomes: Other Intangibles (including patents, trademarks, and copyrights) and R&D expenditure, both of which are log-transformed to account for skewness and enable within-firm comparison. The analysis finds that export controls do not have a significant impact on firm-level innovation inputs or outcomes.

First Page

1

Last Page

108

Rights

© 2026, Mary C. Compton

Download

Share

COinS