Bilateral intra-industry trade flows and intellectual property rights protection: first empirical evidence

Abstract

This study provides the first empirical evidence on the effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection on bilateral intra-industry trade (IIT) flows. The empirical investigation is based on pooled South African data and takes advantage of the theoretical distinction between horizontal and vertical IIT. A gravity equation of international trade is estimated in the context of fixed and random effects models. The principal findings suggest that IPRs and imitation abilities separately are not important factors in determining IIT flows. However, the interaction between them is important.