Intellectual monopoly in global value chains

Cédric Durand and Wiliiam Milberg

Review of International Political Economy, 2020, vol. 27, issue 2, 404-429

Abstract: This paper analyses the role of intangibles in global value chains (GVCs). We find that the intensification of the use of intangible assets within these chains has created new sources of market power. The analysis builds the notion of Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism, where government protections of intellectual property have the effect of locking in the monopoly power from intangible asset creation. We extend it to ‘information rents’ arising from the presence of scale economies and network externalities associated with the production of intangible assets. GVC integration requires a dense circulation of information flows to communicate specifications, standards, technical know-how in addition to costs and other operational details. The expansion of GVC trade is thus linked to a rising mobilization and circulation of intangibles and the monopoly dynamics arising from intangibles need to be assessed in this context.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09692290.2019.1660703 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Intellectual monopoly in global value chains (2019)
Working Paper: Intellectual Monopoly in Global Value Chains (2018)
Working Paper: Intellectual Monopoly in Global Value Chains (2018)
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:taf:rripxx:v:27:y:2020:i:2:p:404-429

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rrip20

DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2019.1660703

Access Statistics for this article

Review of International Political Economy is currently edited by Gregory Chin, Juliet Johnson, Daniel Mügge, Kevin Gallagher, Ilene Grabel and Cornelia Woll

More articles in Review of International Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().