Intellectual property rights and the international transfer of climate change mitigating technologies

Abstract

Our study is a quasi-replication of Dechezleprêtre et al. (2013), which was among the first studies to find a strong role for IPRs in explaining the international transfer of climate change and mitigation technologies (CCMTs). Their result is at odds with the received wisdom on the ambiguous role of IPRs in determining technology transfer to developing countries as strong IPRs can enable a market expansion effect and result in technology transfer but they may also strengthen monopoly power, increase value and reduce the incentive to transfer a large volume of technology. We extend the Dechezleprêtre et al. (2013) study by distinguishing between OECD and non-OECD groups of countries, including the effect of both de jure and de facto IPRs, and extending the period of study to include the years 2008–2018, when global trade and investment slowed down. Our exercise reveals that technology transfer to non-OECD countries is associated with a different set of policies compared to OECD countries. We also find that strong IP policies have not had the same beneficial CCMTs transfer outcomes in 2008–2018 as they did in the earlier period and in fact strong de facto IPR reduced the volume of CCMTs transfer to all countries.