Innovation, Inequality and Intellectual Property Rights

Diana Weinhold and Usha Nair-Reichert

Development and Comp Systems from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The existing literature on the sources and nature of productivity growth during the early industrialization stages of U.S. has identified the combination of intellectual property rights (IPRs) with a large middle class and broad participation in markets as explanations for the extraordinary level and growth of patenting. This paper considers whether these factors could play a role in the contemporaneous evolution of innovation in a broad cross section of countries today. Our results indicate that IPRs and the size of the middle class help explain patterns of resident, but not non-resident patenting. Overall, the evidence suggests that non-resident patenting patterns are driven more by exogenous factors and global integration, while 'home grown' innovation is more sensitive to internal structural and institutional factors.

Keywords: intellectual property rights; innovation; income inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2004-10-05, Revised 2005-02-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-ino and nep-reg
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 26
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Journal Article: Innovation, Inequality and Intellectual Property Rights (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:0410002

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