Tag: intellectual property rights

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Intellectual Property Protections of Genetically Modified Organisms: Implications for Technology Transfers

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This chapter examines intellectual property protections of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).  Specifically, I consider how country differences in intellectual property rights (IPRs) affect transfers of GMO technologies both within and across countries.  While country-level research on IPRs and technology transfers is located prominently in the International Economics literature, research on GMOs is in the Agricultural Economics literature.  These literatures have evolved independently with few linkages.  Thus, I begin by identifying stylized facts from these literatures and consider the implications of these stylized facts for GMO adopting countries.  Second, I examine country-level data on GMO land use, trade, regulations, and IPRs to identify patterns of economic behavior consistent (or inconsistent) with the stylized facts.  Third, I develop a framework that characterizes transfers of GMO technologies both within and across countries which differ in their strength of IPRs.  This framework accounts for the unique characteristics of the GMO technology including self-replication and diffusion of the technology by acts of nature.

Citation:

Smith, Pamela J.  2024. Intellectual property protections of genetically modified organisms:  Implications for technology transfers.  In Handbook of innovation and intellectual property rights:  Evolving scholarship and reflections, ed. Walter G. Park, 342-373.  Cheltenham, UK:  Edward Elgar Publishing.

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How does TRIPs compliance affect the economic growth of developing countries?: Application of the Synthetic Control method

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This paper examines the effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on the economic growth of countries, with special attention to developing countries.  We examine both the strength of countries’ IPRs, as well as their compliance with the 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organization.  Our theoretical framework is a growth model which distinguishes capital as physical capital, human capital and intellectual property.  Our methods include panel regression techniques, plus a novel Synthetic Control method.  The latter is valuable for examining policy effects in research situations where data are limited to small sample sizes; and where reverse causality and heterogeneity are concerns.  The Synthetic Control method allows us to assess the impact of TRIPs compliance on economic growth relative to a counterfactual of what would have occurred in the absence of compliance.  The results show that while select developing countries experience growth benefits from complying with the TRIPs agreement, others do not, supporting the notion that there is a wide range of heterogeneity in the effects of IPR reforms on growth.  These findings are robust when we account for marginal institutional changes in IPRs, enforcement of IPRs, and technological capacity in developing countries.

Citation: 

Smith, Pamela J. and Sebastian J. Anti.  2022.  How does TRIPs compliance affect the economic growth of developing countries?:  Application of the Synthetic Control method.  The World Economy 45 (12):  3873-3906.