¿Innovar o imitar? Una modelización del proceso de producción de tecnología

This paper develops a microeconomic model of technology production. Through it we analyse the factors that determine whether a producer will decide to invest resources in the development of his own innovations, instead of choosing to imitate the innovations created by other entrepreneurs, and sell them once the law allows. The decision he takes will depend on the earnings differential that the two alternatives generate. This differential will, in turn, depend on the earnings generated annually by the invented product, the length of the legal monopoly that permits the discoverer to exploit the innovation exclusively, the obsolescence rate of the technology, the interest rate, the R&D costs and the imitation costs. On the basis of this, we carry out a comparative static analysis to determine the importance of each factor and to help design an efficient technological innovation policy.