Optimal patent protection in a two-sector economy

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goh, AT; Olivier, J
• 署名单位: Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) Paris; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/1468-2354.t01-1-00053
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 1191-1214
• 关键词: monopolistic competition; TECHNOLOGY; GROWTH; MODEL; LIFE

摘要

This article addresses the issue of optimal patent protection in an economy with a downstream and an upstream sector. The key insight is that higher patent protection in the downstream sector raises the incentives of agents to do R&D in that sector but discourages innovation in the upstream sector because of a market size effect. Hence, higher patent protection in the upstream sector accelerates growth whereas higher patent protection in the downstream sector slows it down. If some innovation is socially desirable, optimal patent protection is necessarily higher in the upstream than in the downstream sector.