Comments by Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista, on The Role of Domestic Institutions and FDI on Innovation—Evidence from Chinese Firms

Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista: This study is well written and makes at least three contributions to the literature on the role of domestic institutions and FDI on innovation in domestic Chinese firms. First, whereas the existing literature considers the effects of FDI on innovation in domestic firms and the role of domestic institutions on innovation in domestic firms separately, this study considers the role of both of these factors on firm innovation. Second, this study uses data on indigenous firms’ innovation without excluding non-innovating firms, as other studies have done, and tries to capture the decision of firms whether to innovate at all—that is, the propensity of firms to innovate. Third, unlike other studies that use a single variable such as R&D investment or patents produced, this study uses six measures of innovation: Two are associated with new products, namely, the propensity to develop new products (PNP; i.e., whether a firm...