Does intellectual monopoly stimulate or stifle innovation?

Angus Chu, Guido Cozzi and Silvia Galli ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This study develops an R&D-based growth model that features both vertical and horizontal innovation to shed some light on the current debate on whether patent protection stimulates or stifles innovation. Specifically, we analyze the growth and welfare effects of patent protection in the form of profit division between sequential innovators along the quality ladder. We show that patent protection has asymmetric effects on vertical innovation (i.e., quality improvement) and horizontal innovation (i.e., variety expansion). Maximizing the incentives for vertical (horizontal) innovation requires a profit-division rule that assigns the entire flow profit to the entrant (incumbent) of a quality ladder. In light of this finding, we argue that in order to properly analyze the growth and welfare implications of patent protection, it is important to disentangle its different effects on vertical and horizontal innovation.

Keywords: economic growth; innovation; intellectual property rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O34 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-knm, nep-mic and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/29061/1/MPRA_paper_29061.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/36266/1/MPRA_paper_36266.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does intellectual monopoly stimulate or stifle innovation? (2012)
Working Paper: Does intellectual monopoly stimulate or stifle innovation? (2011)
Working Paper: Innovation-Specific Patent Protection (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:29061

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