Are human capital, intellectual property rights, and research and development expenditures really important for total factor productivity? An empirical analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 756-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misbah Habib ◽  
Jawad Abbas ◽  
Rahat Noman

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of human capital (HC), intellectual property rights (IPRs) and research and development (R&D) expenditures on total factor productivity (TFP), which leads to economic growth. Design/methodology/approach The panel data technique is used on a sample of 16 countries categorized into two groups, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and, in order to make a comparison for the time period of 2007–2015, the researchers used a fixed effect model as an estimation method for regression. Findings The results indicate that HC, IPRs and R&D expenditures appear to be statistically significant and are strong factors in determining changes in TFP and exhibit positive results in all sample sets. Moreover, IPRs alone do not accelerate growth in an economy, especially taking the case of emerging nations. Originality/value Considering the importance of CEE and BRIC countries, and inadequate research on these regions with respect to current study’s variables and techniques, the present research provides valuable insights about the importance of HC, IPR and R&D activities and their impact on TFP, which leads to economic growth. IPRs create a fertile environment for R&D activities, knowledge creation and economic development. Distinct nations can attain better economic status via HC, R&D activities, innovation, trade and FDI, although the relative significance of these channels is likely to differ across countries depending on their developmental levels.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Glauco De Vita ◽  
Constantinos Alexiou ◽  
Emmanouil Trachanas ◽  
Yun Luo

PurposeDespite decades of research, the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and foreign direct investment (FDI) remains ambiguous. Using a recently developed patent enforcement index (along with a broader IPR index) and a large sectoral country-to-country FDI dataset, the authors revisit the FDI-IPR relationship by testing the impact of IPRs on UK and US outward FDI (OFDI) flows as well as earnings from outward FDI (EOFDI).Design/methodology/approachThe authors use disaggregated data for up to 9 distinct sectors of economic activity from both the US and UK for OFDI flows and EOFDI, for a panel of up to 42 developed and developing countries over sample periods from 1998 to 2015. The authors employ a panel fixed effects (FE) approach that allows exploiting the longitudinal properties of the data using Driscoll and Kraay's (1998) nonparametric covariance matrix estimator.FindingsThe authors do not find any consistent evidence in support of the hypothesis that countries' strength of IPR protection or enforcement affects inward FDI, or that sector of investment matters. The results prove robust to sensitivity checks that include an alternative broader measure of IPR strength, analyses across sub-samples disaggregated according to the strength of countries' IPRs as well as developing vs developed economies and an extended specification accounting for dynamic effects of the response of FDI to both previous investment levels and IPR (patent) protection.Originality/valueThe authors make use of the largest most granular sectoral country-to-country FDI dataset employed to date in the analysis of the FDI-IPR nexus with disaggregated data for OFDI and EOFDI across up to 9 distinct sectors of economic activity from both the US and UK The authors employ a more sophisticated measure of IPR strength, the patent index proposed by Papageorgiadis et al. (2014), which places emphasis on the effectiveness of enforcement practices as perceived by managers, together with the overall administrative effectiveness and efficiency of the national patent system.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-53
Author(s):  
Peter Phillips ◽  
Morteza Haghiri

AbstractThe increasing population of developing countries, which creates an increasing demand for food, is severely challenging traditional agricultural practices. Recent scientific developments have introduced biotechnology techniques to agriculture. To increase the benefits from implementing biotechnology, countries need both to continuously invest in research and development in their biotechnology sector and to implement a series of complementary policies. Establishing and enforcing the intellectual property rights of plant breeders are among of these policies. The successful institution of plant breeders' rights is influenced by market institutions and the legal system, which together comprise the environmental structure of the economy. Since property rights are not well established in most developing and developed countries, individual research and innovations cannot be protected from intellectual property piracy. As a result, there is little incentive to continue investment in research and development in biotechnology in those markets. This paper proposes a model of regional intellectual property rights for developing countries where individual intellectual property rights are not enforceable.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiying Zhang ◽  
Xiaohui Yang

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on its ability to enhance domestic export quality. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a testable framework to explain the impact of IPR protection on export quality. Research and development (R&D) spending and foreign direct investment (FDI) are positively correlated with a country’s export quality. Furthermore, intellectual property protection can induce more FDI and R&D spending. Therefore, the authors expect that there may be an indirect relationship between intellectual property protection and export quality (Figure 1). Findings The empirical results suggest that the influence paths of IPR protection on export quality are different between developed and developing countries. FDI plays a mediating role in the relationship between IPR protection and export quality in developing countries, while this mediating effect in developed countries is dependent on R&D and FDI. In addition, this impact is statistically significant in high-technology industries. Especially, IPR protection plays an extraordinary important role in enhancing the export quality of differentiated high-technology products. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, this is the first empirical analysis focusing on the influence path of IPR protection on export quality. The authors find that the hypothesis is supported by the positive and significant interaction coefficients of IPR protection with FDI and R&D. Second, the authors explore that the influence path of IPR protection on export quality may vary with the level of economic development. Third, this paper examines the effect of IPR protection on export quality in different industries.


2019 ◽  
pp. 119-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grigory I. Senchenia

With the acceleration of technological development and the digital transformation of economies, the impact of intellectual property on economic growth will increase. The article shows that the forms and means of legal protection and use of intellectual property will evolve in line with the opportunities that will be provided by the infrastructure (production, fixation, management, tracking and protection of intellectual property rights) in this area. In Russia, the “digitalization” of legal protection and use of intellectual property rights will make it possible to form public-private platforms for rights management, which will create additional opportunities for authors to effectively manage their rights. This will attract investors to the non-raw-material sector of the economy and may become an important driver for the development of the digital economy in the country as a whole.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Vahagn Jerbashian

I analyze the impact of intellectual property and product market competition regulations on innovation and long-run growth in an endogenous growth model with two R&D performing sectors. I show that strengthening intellectual property rights and competition in a sector increases its R&D investments. However, these policies adversely affect R&D investments in the other sector because of increased factor competition between the sectors. As a result, the overall impact of such policies on economic growth is ambiguous. I perform a numerical exercise in an attempt to resolve this ambiguity. This exercise suggests that strengthening intellectual property rights increases economic growth, but higher competition has a very limited effect on growth.


Author(s):  
Kalaichevi Ravinthirakumaran ◽  
Tarlok Singh ◽  
Eliyathamby Selvanathan ◽  
Saroja Selvanathan

This paper examines whether FDI generates productivity spillovers in Sri Lanka, using the annual data over the period from 1978 to 2015. The autoregressive distributed lag model has been estimated to investigate the effects of FDI, research and development, human capital, international trade, technological gap, rate of inflation, population growth and civil war on total factor productivity (TFP). The results reveal that FDI positively influences TFP. The results also confirm that research and development, human capital and international trade have positive effects. The findings suggest that Sri Lanka needs to increase investment in human capital and in research and development and needs to introduce policies to attract FDI inflows.


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