Published in:CELS 2009 4th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper
Extent:
1 Online-Ressource (32 p)
Language:
English
DOI:
10.2139/ssrn.1339730
Identifier:
Origination:
Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments August 10, 2012 erstellt
Description:
The objective of patent rights is to foster innovation and economic growth. However, to date, there is little robust evidence that patents ldquo;workrdquo; as intended. Here, we study the impact of changes in effective patent rights within panels of up to 54 manufacturing industries in up to 72 countries between 1981-2000. We find that more patent-intensive industries responded to stronger patent laws with higher growth, which effect increased with GDP per capita. Between 1991-1995, an increase in the level of effective patent rights from Hong Kong to Australia would have raised the average growth of the leather industry by 1/18, but that of the other chemicals industry by about 1/5. Patent rights increased growth through both factor accumulation and raising productivity. Our findings were robust to alternative measures of patent rights and patent intensity