Does increased intellectual property rights protection foster innovation in developing countries? A literature review of innovation and catch‐up

This paper contributes to the debate on the role of innovation and intellectual property rights (IPRs) in catch‐up policies in developing countries (DCs). We survey the literature on four key points. First, we review the neoclassical and evolutionary theoretical foundations of innovation and catch‐up. Second, we examine why some countries lag behind, in particular in terms of path dependency and multiplicity of convergence dynamics. From this follows the question of how to foster innovation in DCs. We examine the issues of IPRs protection in a third point and industrial policies in a fourth point. Strengthening IPRs protection is often recommended by international institutions. However, the related literature shows that their impact is strongly non‐linear, as the optimal level for DCs is initially low, then increases as the countries develop. This result is robust to a wide range of models and methods. Finally, the literature reveals that industrial policies can be crucial in fostering innovation in DCs, even though their implementation faces serious challenges, in particular the appropriate targeting of industrial policies, and rent‐seeking behaviours in a deteriorated institutional environment.