Trade, innovation and optimal patent protection

David Hemous, Simon Lepot, Ralph Ossa, Thomas Sampson and Julian Schärer

No 456, ECON - Working Papers from Department of Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: This paper provides the first quantitative analysis of optimal patent policy in trading economies. We develop a new framework that combines trade and growth theory into a tractable quantitative model, which we estimate to fit patent and trade data. Counterfactual analysis yields three main results. First, potential gains from international cooperation over patent policies are large, but achieving them requires developed countries to provide stronger patent protection than developing economies. Second, existing policies only realize a small share of these gains. Third, by pushing towards policy harmonization, the TRIPS agreement hurts developing countries without generating significant global welfare gains.

Keywords: Intellectual property rights; trade policy; patents; growth; quantitative trade; TRIPS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F13 F55 O34 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-09, Revised 2026-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-int, nep-ipr and nep-tid
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Related works:
Working Paper: Trade, innovation and optimal patent protection (2023)
Working Paper: Trade, Innovation and Optimal Patent Protection (2023)
Working Paper: Trade, innovation and optimal patent protection (2023)
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