Intellectual property rights and the margins of international trade

Abstract

Economic theory indicates some ambiguity in the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and trade. Here, we extend the empirical literature that attempts to resolve this ambiguity by examining how IPRs affect trade along both the intensive – increasing volume of existing goods – and extensive – increasing variety of goods – margins oftrade. Our main results suggest that IPRs have a positive impact on imports, which is driven by a positive effect on the extensive margin and a negative impact on the intensive margin. Splitting countries according to their level of development, market size and imitative ability, we find that the positive impact of IPRs is strongest in less-developed countries, as well as larger countries and those with a higher degree of imitative ability.