IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp639.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are Intellectual Property Rights Unfair?

Author

Listed:
  • Saint-Paul, Gilles

    (Paris School of Economics)

Abstract

If redistribution is distortionary, and if the income of skilled workers is due to knowledgeintensive activities and depends positively on intellectual property, a social planner which cares about income distribution may in principle want to use a reduction in Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) rather than redistributive transfers. On the one hand, such a reduction reduces statis inefficiency. On the other hand, standard redistribution also reduces the level of R and D because it distorts occupational choice. We study this possibility in the context of a model with horizontal innovation, where the government, in addition to taxes and transfers, controls the fraction of innovations that are granted patents. The model predicts that standard redistribution always dominates limitations to IPRs.

Suggested Citation

  • Saint-Paul, Gilles, 2002. "Are Intellectual Property Rights Unfair?," IZA Discussion Papers 639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp639
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp639.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saint-Paul, Gilles, 2001. "Distribution and Growth in an Economy with Limited Needs," IZA Discussion Papers 273, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    3. Foellmi, Reto & Josef Zweim¸ller, 2002. "Heterogeneous Mark-ups, Demand Composition, and the Inequality-Growth Relation," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 76, Royal Economic Society.
    4. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    5. A. D. Roy, 1951. "Some Thoughts On The Distribution Of Earnings," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 135-146.
    6. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    7. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Colin Davis, 2013. "Regional integration and innovation offshoring with occupational choice and endogenous growth," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 108(1), pages 59-79, January.
    2. Alireza Naghavi & Chiara Strozzi, 2011. "Intellectual Property Rights, Migration, and Diaspora," Working Papers 2011.60, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Alireza Naghavi & Chiara Strozzi, "undated". "Intellectual Property Rights and Diaspora Knowledge Networks," Development Working Papers 380, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    4. Colin Davis & Yasunobu Tomoda, 2009. "Competing process and quality innovation in a model of occupational choice," Discussion Papers 0915, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    5. Koichiro Sano & Yasunobu Tomoda, 2019. "Persistent income gaps in an occupational choice model with multi‐goods," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Christian Kiedaisch, 2021. "Growth and welfare effects of intellectual property rights when consumers differ in income," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 72(4), pages 1121-1170, November.
    7. Colin R. Davis, 2009. "Interregional Knowledge Spillovers And Occupational Choice In A Model Of Free Trade And Endogenous Growth," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 855-876, December.
    8. Anupam B. Jena & Stéphane Mechoulan & Tomas J. Philipson, 2010. "Altruism and Innovation in Health Care," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(3), pages 497-518.
    9. Sercan Ozcan & Nazrul Islam, 2017. "Patent information retrieval: approaching a method and analysing nanotechnology patent collaborations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(2), pages 941-970, May.
    10. Sano, Koichiro & Tomoda, Yasunobu, 2010. "Optimal public education policy in a two sector model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 991-995, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. C. Benassi & A. Chirco & C. Colombo, 2015. "Beyond the Uniform Distribution: Equilibrium Prices and Qualities in a Vertically Differentiated Duopoly," Working Papers wp1044, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    2. Gustavo Suárez R., 1999. "Tecnología de transacciones endógena y los costos de la inflación," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, issue 35, pages 55-85, June.
    3. Reto Foellmi & Josef Zweimuller, 2006. "Income Distribution and Demand-Induced Innovations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(4), pages 941-960.
    4. Hikaru Kawarazaki & Minhaj Mahmud & Yasuyuki Sawada & Mai Seki, 2023. "Haste Makes No Waste: Positive Peer Effects of Classroom Speed Competition on Learning," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(4), pages 755-772, August.
    5. King, Philip & Millard, Stephen, 2014. "Modelling the service sector," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58234, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Joachim Henkel & Eric von Hippel, 2005. "Welfare Implications of User Innovation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 30(2_2), pages 73-87, January.
    7. Corrado Benassi & Alessandra Chirco & Caterina Colombo, 2019. "Vertical differentiation beyond the uniform distribution," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 221-248, April.
    8. Brouwer, E. & van der Wiel, H.P., 2010. "Competition and Innovation : Pushing Productivity Up or Down?," Discussion Paper 2010-52, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    9. Júlio, Paulo, 2014. "The politics of growth: Can lobbying raise growth and welfare?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 263-280.
    10. Ka Wai Terence Fung & Chi Keung Marco Lau & Kwok Ho Chan, 2016. "An R&D-based real business cycle model," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 63(4), pages 327-358, December.
    11. Spyros Arvanitis & Florian Seliger, 2014. "Imitation versus innovation," KOF Working papers 14-367, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    12. Christian Bauer, 2008. "Trade, Productivity and semi-endogenous Growth," Working Papers 056, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    13. Charles Bérubé & Marc Duhamel & Daniel Ershov, 2012. "Market Incentives for Business Innovation: Results from Canada," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 47-65, March.
    14. Iritié, B. G. Jean-Jacques, 2014. "Enjeux des politiques industrielles basées sur les clusters d'innovation: cas des pôles de compétitivité [Issues of Innovative Clusters-based Industrial Policy: Case of Pole of Competitiveness]," MPRA Paper 54429, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Bel Hadj Tarek, 2012. "Product Differentiation and Intra-Industrial Trade: Quantitative Assessment in the Case of Tunisia," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 4(10), pages 570-587.
    16. Tishler, Asher & Milstein, Irena, 2009. "R&D wars and the effects of innovation on the success and survivability of firms in oligopoly markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 519-531, July.
    17. Cornett, Marcia Millon & Erhemjamts, Otgontsetseg & Tehranian, Hassan, 2019. "Competitive environment and innovation intensity," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 44-59.
    18. Sovik Mukherjee & Vivekananda Mukherjee, 2023. "“Love for variety,” outside option and extensive margin of demand," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(3), pages 425-449, September.
    19. Brouwer, E. & van der Wiel, H.P., 2010. "Competition and Innovation : Pushing Productivity Up or Down?," Other publications TiSEM 9efe62df-d940-4471-8bc7-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Mohamed MABROUKI, 2018. "Determination Of Optimal Patent Length In Favor Of Innovation And Growth," Journal of Smart Economic Growth, , vol. 3(1), pages 57-75, Juin.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    redistribution; inequality; income distribution; innovation; intellectual property rights; welfare state; human capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp639. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.