Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Adoption in Developing Countries

Featuring
Elisabetta Gentile
University of Houston

Hosted by
Kimberly Elliott
Center for Global Development

Adoption of new technology is widely recognized as an important driver of growth in developing countries. What is not clear is whether protection of intellectual property (IP) rights helps or hinders new technology adoption. On the one hand, strong enforcement of these rights encourages inventors to transfer technology as they accrue greater benefits. On the other hand, enforcing IP rights gives inventors a monopoly on the sale of their technology, which in turn leads to higher prices and may ultimately make the technologies unaffordable for firms in developing countries. In a new paper, Gentile studies the impact of IP protection on technology licensing, and finds that newly industrialized economies stand to gain the most from stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights.