The WTO inspired strengthening of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in developing countries remains highly controversial even 15 years after the 1994 TRIPs agreement. This paper employs both theory and empirics to assess how a strengthening of IPRs affects international technology diffusion by altering the volume of high-tech exports into developing countries. In the context of a North-South general equilibrium model,stronger IPRs encourage Northern firms to introduce new high-tech products in the South. High-tech exports to the South rise, while low-tech exports may fall. International technology diffusion does not necessarily fall. These theoretical predictions are examined empirically. On average,developing countries that strengthened their IPRs under the TRIPs agreement saw an increase of approximately $50 billion (1994 US dollars) in their high-tech imports. This amount is equivalent to a 13% increase in their annual value of high-tech imports.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Calgary in its series Working Papers with number
2009-02.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (May Ives).
Related research
Keywords:
Find related papers by JEL classification: F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law O34 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Intellectual Property Rights
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: