Innovation and FDI: Does the target of intellectual property rights protection matter?

Abstract

This paper develops a North-South product-cycle model with innovation and foreign direct investment (FDI) to analyze the influences from strengthening intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. Innovation occurs in the North while imitation happens in the South. Southern firms can imitate either goods produced in the North or goods produced by multinationals in the South. We find that if the target of strengthening IPR protection is Northern-produced goods, then such a policy change reduces the innovation rate and raises the North-South relative wage in the long run. However, the effects on the long-run innovation rate and the North-South relative wage reverse if its target is Southern-produced goods by multinationals. As for the pattern of production, strengthening IPR protection raises the long-run extents of FDI and Southern production imitating goods produced by multinationals while reducing the long-run extents of Northern production and Southern production imitating goods produced in the North, regardless of the target of stronger IPR protection. In addition to examining the long-run effects of strengthening IPR protection, we also analyze its effects during the transitional dynamics. The quantitative analysis indicates that the two strengthening-IPR-protection policies cause welfare losses for both Northern and Southern consumers if we consider the accumulated effects during the transitional dynamics.