David Tobias Angenendt
Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer,
Department of Economics & Policy,
TUM School of Management,
Technical University of Munich
Research fields: Industrial Organization, Innovation Economics, Intellectual Property
Contact email: david.angenendt@gmail.com
In 2025–26 I am available for tenure-track positions in economics, innovation, and related fields.
Direct links to my application materials:
Title: "Exclusive Secrets"
Co-authored with Giacomo Calzolari and Alireza Naghavi; I have contributed the empirical design, data construction, and economic interpretation
Current status: conditionally accepted in Journal of the European Economic Association
Summary:
The paper studies how firms protect knowledge when legal secrecy is imperfect. It links an incomplete-contracting model to evidence from global automotive supply networks and shows that weaker trade-secret environments prompt OEMs to adopt exclusive supplier relationships to safeguard knowledge, particularly when inputs exhibit moderate relationship specificity. The mechanism explains how legal institutions tilt vertical contracting and, through that channel, competition.
Other papers:
Published:
"Mitigating technology gaps' contribution to international income inequality", with Franco Mariuzzo and Junjun Zhang, Economic Inquiry, 2025. Open Access.
Under review:
"Exclusive Secrets", with Giacomo Calzolari and Alireza Naghavi, conditionally accepted in Journal of the European Economic Association, 2025. Submitted as my job market paper. Previously circulated as CEPR Discussion Paper 18977.
"Do Firms Report More University Knowledge Sourcing When Informed About Engagement Channels? Evidence from a Field Experiment", with Ammon Salter, R&R (round 2) at Research Policy.
Working papers:
"Competition and the Strategic Disclosure of Innovation: Theory and Evidence from Patent Applications", with Bernhard Ganglmair, circulated as CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper No. 664.
“The Private Costs of Legal Uncertainty: Evidence from the Unified Patent Court”. Latest public version (June 2025) available at upc.datanecon.org.
References:
Prof. Hanna Hottenrott, TUM and ZEW Mannheim
Prof. Alan Hughes, Imperial College and CBR Cambridge
Prof. Alireza Naghavi, Kyoto University and University of Bologna