Dynamic Panel Data Analysis Of The Impact Of Intellectual Property Rights On Entrepreneurship In Emerging And Developing Countries

: Entrepreneurship is considered as a key driver of economic growth and development. That is why, scholarly contributions have set out to identify its national determinants. In the present study, we aim to shed some light on to how the institutional framework affects the entrepreneurship levels, by focusing on emerging and developing countries. More specifically, this study examines the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) on entrepreneurship in emerging and developing countries. This issue is becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of developing countries which adhere to the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS). Further to this agreement, all member countries of the world trade organization are required to achieve high standards of IPR. From the theoretical analysis, it appears that the impact of IPR on innovative entrepreneurs is positive, while their impact on imitators is more ambiguous. To empirically test these hypotheses, we apply a System Generalized Method of Moments (System GMM) technique on a panel of 28 countries during the period 2005-2012. The entrepreneurship level is measured by the new business entry density while the protection degree of intellectual property rights is measured by the IPR index of World Economic Forum. The findings show a non-significant effect of IPR on new business entry. We conclude that the intellectual property rights are not an effective tool of industrial policy in emerging and developing countries. Governments should rely on other factors in order to spur entrepreneurship.