Differential effects of intellectual property rights on innovation and economic performance: A cross-industry investigation

Kyungchul Cho, Changseok Kim and Juneseuk Shin

Science and Public Policy, 2015, vol. 42, issue 6, 827-840

Abstract: Despite many previous studies, the causal relationship among intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, innovation and economic growth remains ambiguous. Focusing on the differential effects of stronger IPR on industries, we suggest four causal paths from IPR through R&D to economic performance. Using firm-level panel data in semiconductor, pharmaceutical and shipbuilding industries in Korea, we find that effective causal paths vary not only by industry but by firm size. Stronger IPR are beneficial to R&D-intensive industries where large domestic firms have strong R&D and IPR capabilities, but have no impact on globalized industries. On the other hand, stronger IPR are detrimental to industries and to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) characterized by limited resources. Thus, to boost innovation and economic growth, IPR policies need to be customized to industries as well as SMEs. Universally strong IPR policies are likely to discourage innovation and growth, causing some industries to suffer.

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/scv009 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:scippl:v:42:y:2015:i:6:p:827-840.

Access Statistics for this article

Science and Public Policy is currently edited by Nicoletta Corrocher, Jeong-Dong Lee, Mireille Matt and Nicholas Vonortas

More articles in Science and Public Policy from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().