Neil Foster

Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Growth

Interest in links between protection of intellectual property and growth has been revived by developments in new growth theory and by the WTOs TRIPS Agreement. The relationship between the strength of a countrys intellectual property rights (IPRs) regime and rate of growth is ambiguous from a theoretical standpoint, reflecting the variety of channels through which technology can be acquired and their differing importance at different stages of development. We investigate the impact of IPR protection on economic growth in a panel of 79 countries using threshold regression analysis. We show that whilst the effect of IPR protection on growth depends upon the level of development, it is positively and significantly related to growth for low- and high-income countries, but not for middle-income countries. This suggests that, although IPR protection encourages innovation in high-income countries, and technology flows to low-income countries, middle-income countries may have offsetting losses from reduced scope for imitation. Copyright

The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Economic Growth: Evidence from a Quantile Regression Analysis

Individual country experience with trade liberalisation has been mixed. This paper examines the relationship between liberalisation and growth for a sample of 75 liberalising countries. To consider the importance of heterogeneity in the growth response to liberalisation this paper employs quantile regression methods which allow the coefficient on liberalisation to vary across the conditional growth distribution. The results suggest that countries experiencing the lowest rates of growth benefit most from liberalisation. The results also suggest that while such countries benefit most in the long-run they are the most likely to suffer from short-run negative effects of liberalisation.

Exports, growth and threshold effects in Africa

Abstract The relationship between openness and growth remains a controversial issue in development economics with many studies focusing on the export–growth relationship. This paper examines whether the relationship between exports and growth found in large cross-section studies also holds in the context of African economies. The paper employs threshold regression techniques to examine whether African countries benefit more from exports when they reach a certain level of development or openness. Our results suggest that there is indeed a positive relationship between exports and growth in Africa. The threshold regression analysis also suggests that it is not necessary for a country to reach a certain level of development or to have an existing export base for this relationship to hold, though it is found that the relationship is stronger for countries that experience higher rates of export growth.

Imported Equipment, Human Capital and Economic Growth in Developing Countries

De Long and Summers (1991) began a literature examining the impact of equipment investment on growth. In this paper we examine such a relationship for developing countries by considering imports of equipment from advanced countries as our measure of equipment investment for a sample of 55 developing countries. We examine whether the level of human capital in a country affects its ability to benefit from such investment. We find a complex interrelationship between imported equipment and human capital. Generally, the relationship between imported equipment and growth is lowest, and often negative, for countries with low levels of human capital, highest for countries within an intermediate range and somewhat in between for countries with the highest level of human capital.

Intellectual property rights and the margins of international trade

Economic theory indicates some ambiguity in the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and trade. Here, we extend the empirical literature that attempts to resolve this ambiguity by examining how IPRs affect trade along both the intensive – increasing volume of existing goods – and extensive – increasing variety of goods – margins oftrade. Our main results suggest that IPRs have a positive impact on imports, which is driven by a positive effect on the extensive margin and a negative impact on the intensive margin. Splitting countries according to their level of development, market size and imitative ability, we find that the positive impact of IPRs is strongest in less-developed countries, as well as larger countries and those with a higher degree of imitative ability.

The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Economic Growth: Evidence from a Quantile Regression Analysis: THE IMPACT OF TRADE LIBERALISATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

Individual country experience with trade liberalisation has been mixed. This paper examines the relationship between liberalisation and growth for a sample of 75 liberalising countries. To consider the importance of heterogeneity in the growth response to liberalisation this paper employs quantile regression methods which allow the coefficient on liberalisation to vary across the conditional growth distribution. The results suggest that countries experiencing the lowest rates of growth benefit most from liberalisation. The results also suggest that while such countries benefit most in the long-run they are the most likely to suffer from short-run negative effects of liberalisation.