Technology Transfer and the Economic Implications of the Strengthening of Intellectual Property Rights in Developing Countries

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the influence of the strength of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on technology transfer to developing nations. The core contribution is to use regression analysis to examine the relationship between various measures of technology transfer and a set of indexes that quantify the strength of IPRs based on laws on the books, while controlling for other factors. For this purpose, the authors have assembled a data set covering a broad international panel of countries for an expanded time frame (1990-2005) in comparison with previous studies on IPRs by the Trade and Agriculture Directorate. Regression analysis is also used to assess the relationship between measures of local innovation and the IPR indexes. The study employs case study analysis of select countries - namely the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) - to complement the statistical analysis.