Douglas C. Lippoldt

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.

Trends in Working Hours in OECD Countries

In recent years, the decline in average annual hours of work per person in employment, which can be traced back for over a century, has slowed. In some countries, there has even been an increase in the average annual hours per person employed. In countries where continuing falls can be observed, this can be traced to legal action (for example, France, Japan and Portugal) or to particularly vigorous negotiation between the social partners (for example, Germany and the Netherlands). The United States and Sweden both show an increase in average annual hours, in the first case due partly to an increase in overtime hours, in the second to an increase in the hours worked by part-time workers. For the European countries, the paper shows how the pattern of change in weekly working hours can be linked, inter alia, to the institutional arrangements applying in the different countries. Part-time working has both exerted downward pressure on average working hours and been an important ... Entamee depuis plus d’un siecle, la baisse du temps de travail annuel par personne disposant d’un emploi s’est ralentie depuis quelques annees, et s’est meme inversee dans certains pays. Dans ceux ou elle se poursuit, c’est suite a une action du legislateur (France, Japon, Portugal) ou a des negociations vigoureuses entre les partenaires sociaux (Allemagne et Pays-Bas). Les Etats-Unis et la Suede enregistrent l’un comme l’autre une augmentation de la duree annuelle moyenne du travail. Dans le premier cas, c’est en partie du a une progression des heures supplementaires, dans le second, a un accroissement de la duree moyenne du travail a temps partiel. Pour les pays europeens, cet article montre que l’evolution de la duree de travail hebdomadaire peut etre reliee aux dispositifs institutionnels applicables a l’echelon national. Le temps partiel est responsable d’une baisse de la duree moyenne du travail et constitue une source majeure de creation d’emplois dans la plupart des pays ...

Private sector employment in Russia - Scale, composition and performance

In Russia, as across Central and Eastern Europe, privatization and the establishment of new private firms have been viewed as key factors in labor market adjustment during the transition period. This paper considers the overall employment developments in the private sector in Russia and the extent to which the private sector employment performance is differentiated from that of other sectors in five Russian regions. The analysis is based on a fresh look at these issues using official statistics published by Goskomstat and drawing on microdata from the March 1996 Russian Labour Force Survey (LFS). A special questionnaire attached to the LFS in the study regions provides supplementary information. The paper highlights shifts in the sectoral composition of employment, including growth in private sector employment. Compared to other forms of ownership, the analysis confirms a tendency for private sector ownership in the study regions to be associated with stronger employment performance with respect to hours worked and, in some cases, timely payment of wages. Private sector firms appear to have relatively flexible employment patterns, utilizing more fixed-term or part-time employment than other types of firms and experiencing greater labor turnover. Also, private sector employees tend to be somewhat younger and probably more adaptable people. However, there is significant variation across the study regions and substantial exceptions exist with respect to the above-mentioned tendencies. With respect to employment issues, the differentiation between sectors appears to be less pronounced than one might have expected.

International Licensing and the Strengthening of Intellectual Property Rights in Developing Countries

This study presents an empirical analysis of the extent to which stronger intellectual property rights promote international technology transfer through licensing activities. The analysis focuses on licensing activities of U.S. multinationals as well as on international licensing alliances between firms in developing and developed nations. Both aggregate level data and firm level data are examined. The study provides general support for the proposition that the strengthening of intellectual property rights - as measured by selected indicators - has had a net positive effect on technology transfer via licensing during the 1990s. The general implication of this study for developing economies is that IPR reform should be one part of a general strategy for promoting economic development in combination with other complementary policy reforms. In particular, patent rights and effective enforcement can be instrumental in enabling firms in developing nations to access and exploit technologies and know-how through licensing agreements with parties in developed nations. Overall, the analysis presented here indicates that where developing countries have moved to address weaknesses in these areas in recent years, they have tended to experience enhanced access to technology through licensing.

The Australian Preferential Tariff Regime

The purpose of this paper is to consider the preferential trade arrangements available to developing countries exporting into the Australian market. The paper opens with an overview of these arrangements, followed by a detailed statistical review. It then moves to examine several topics of particular interest in the discussion of Australian preferences. A simulation of the welfare impacts of preference erosion is then presented, followed by some brief concluding remarks.

China's Trade and Growth

This paper examines Chinas emergence as a global player in international markets over the last few decades. It provides an overview of Chinas trade policy environment following the countrys process of market opening and joining the WTO. The report analyses China’s role in international processing activities and moving up the global value chain. It also examines China’s impact on world prices and the deterioration of its own terms of trade. The paper looks at Chinas two-pronged export...

Trade Preference Erosion

This paper presents additional findings from the on-going work of the OECD project on trade preference erosion. The purpose was to assess in more detail the situation of those preference-reliant countries seen as being most at risk of experiencing negative welfare effects from preference erosion as a consequence of multilateral tariff liberalisation (building on Lippoldt and Kowalski, 2005). Based on a selection criterion, 7 developing countries were chosen for inclusion in the present study: Bangladesh, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Using the standard GTAP database and model, the paper considers a scenario of multilateral tariff liberalisation involving a 50% linear reduction in the ad-valorem equivalent measure of protection. Whereas most developing regions experienced welfare gains as a consequence of such a scenario, the selected countries were found to be at risk of modest welfare losses, most of which were associated with tariff liberalisation by European Union countries (EU-15). Where negative welfare impacts occurred in the selected developing countries, they tended to be driven primarily by terms of trade losses (especially by negative export price effects). In line with the modest size of the estimated welfare losses, the overall impact in terms of structural adjustment -- as measured by an index of structural change -- tended to be relatively modest. For three of the seven developing countries, welfare losses primarily associated with the EU-15 tariff liberalisation are estimated to be more than fully offset by greater gains arising from improved market access in other sectors and markets.

Channels of technology transfer and intellectual property rights in developing countries

Protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) serves a dual role in economic development. While it promotes innovation by providing legal protection of inventions, it may retard catch-up and learning by restricting the diffusion of innovations. Does stronger IPR protection in a developing country encourage technology development in or technology transfer to that country? This book aims to address the issue, covering diverse forms of IPRs, diverse actors in innovation, and diverse cases from Asia and Latin America.

Échanges et croissance de la Chine

Le present document examine l’emergence de la Chine en tant qu’acteur mondial sur les marches internationaux au cours des toutes dernieres decennies. Il offre une vue d’ensemble du cadre de la politique commerciale de la Chine apres l’ouverture de ses marches et son adhesion a l’OMC. Ce rapport analyse le role de la Chine dans les activites internationales de transformation et son elevation dans la chaine de valeur mondiale. Il traite egalement de l’impact de la Chine sur les prix mondiaux et de la degradation de ses termes de l’echange. Il etudie la strategie poursuivie par la Chine, qui consiste a assurer l’expansion de ses exportations sur deux fronts. Le premier aspect de cette strategie consiste a tirer parti du facteur de production qui constitue son atout majeur – sa main-d’oeuvre surabondante – en privilegiant les produits manufactures a forte intensite de main-d’oeuvre, qui creent des emplois. Le second consiste a promouvoir son objectif de developpement en modernisant son economie grâce a la production et a l’exportation de biens de haute technologie. Le document traite egalement des droits de propriete intellectuelle (DPI). La plupart des donnees font apparaitre de considerables progres dans la mise en place d’un regime de DPI adapte aux besoins d’une economie de marche moderne. Subsistent toutefois certaines deficiences – en particulier en ce qui concerne le controle de l’application de la reglementation en matiere de DPI – qui pourraient porter prejudice aux interets nationaux et internationaux.

Licences internationales et renforcement des droits de propriété intellectuelle dans les pays en développement

Le present document etudie de maniere empirique l’influence que peut exercer une meilleure protection des droits de propriete intellectuelle (DPI) sur le transfert international de technologie par l’intermediaire de la concession de licences. L’analyse est centree sur les activites des multinationales des Etats-Unis en matiere de licences ainsi que sur les alliances internationales entre pays developpes et en developpement dans ce domaine. Elle utilise a la fois des donnees agregees et des donnees au niveau des entreprises. L’etude fournit des elements generaux d’appui a l’idee que le renforcement des droits de propriete intellectuelle – mesure par des indicateurs choisis – a eu un effet net positif sur le transfert de technologies au moyen de licences pendant les annees 90. Elle montre que, pour les economies en developpement, la reforme des DPI doit faire partie d’une strategie generale de promotion du developpement economique, en association avec d’autres reformes complementaires. En particulier, les droits de brevet et l’efficacite de leur mise en œuvre sont determinants pour permettre aux entreprises des pays en developpement d’acceder aux technologies et au savoir-faire et de les exploiter dans le cadre d’accords de concession de licence avec des parties des pays developpes. Dans l’ensemble, cette analyse indique que les pays en developpement qui ont cherche a remedier aux faiblesses rencontrees dans ces domaines ces dernieres annees ont generalement ameliore leur acces aux technologies au moyen des licences.