The international economics of intellectual property right protection: a welfare-theoretic trade policy analysis

Summary. -- This paper provides an analystical construct for examining the trade policy effects of greater intellectual property protection in technology importing countries. It is shown that two types of conflict are likely to arise between net technology importers and exporters. The first relates to the level of protection with importers preferring a low level and exporters a high one. The second conflict, hitherto unexplored, relates to the manner of protection with importers likely to prefer discriminatory regimes favoring local R&D creation, whereas exporters would prefer nondiscriminatory protection in importing countries.