Technology Transfer, Foreign Direct Investment, and the Protection of Intellectual Property in the Global Economy

The following sections are included:

• Dedication
• About the Editor
• Acknowledgments
• Contents

We build a quality ladders product cycle model that explores how the quality of technology transferred through foreign direct investment (FDI) is linked to innovation and imitation when the absorptive capacity of LDCs is limited. Successful imitation of low quality levels makes FDI involving high quality levels possible through reduction of the technology gap. A subsidy to imitation or a tax on low quality FDI production encourages imitation relative to innovation, thus releasing the constraint faced by foreign firms seeking to produce in the South. These forces that stimulate high-quality FDI raise Southern welfare through lower prices, faster innovation and higher wages.

We investigate the effects of increased outsourcing of production to a low wage country. Such international outsourcing lowers the marginal cost of production and thus increases profits, creating greater incentives for innovation. A reduction in the resource requirement in adapting technology relative to improving products or an expansion in the portion of production that can be outsourced generates a greater extent of international outsourcing, a lower relative wage and a faster rate of innovation. An increase in production taxes in the North, production subsidies in the South, or a subsidy to adapting technologies has similar effects.

To analyze the effect of vertical technology transfer on industrial development in lesser developed countries (LDCs), we develop a model in which the technology transferred to an LDC supplier by a developed country (DC) importer can diffuse to other LDC firms. Surprisingly, even if such diffusion in the LDC market leads to entry into the DC market, it can benefit both the initial DC importer and its initial LDC supplier by reducing the double marginalization problem. This effect does not depend upon whether firms compete in prices or quantities and exists even when the number of entrants into each market is endogenously determined.

What role does trade play in international technology transfer? Do technologies introduced by multinational firms diffuse to local firms? What kinds of policies have proved successful in encouraging technology absorption from abroad and why? Using these questions as motivation, this article surveys the recent trade literature on international technology transfer, paying particular attention to the role of foreign direct investment. The literature argues that trade necessarily encourages growth only if knowledge spillovers are international in scope. Empirical evidence on the scope of knowledge spillovers (national versus international) is ambiguous. Several recent empirical plant-level studies have questioned earlier studies that argued that foreign direct investment has a positive impact on the productivity of local firms. Yet at the aggregate level, evidence supports the view that foreign direct investment has a positive effect on economic growth in the host country.

This paper analyzes national and international policy options to encourage the international transfer of technology, distinguishing between four major channels of such transfer: trade in products, trade in knowledge and technology, foreign direct investment, and intranational and international movement of people. A typology of countries and appropriate policy rules of thumb are developed as a guide to both national policymakers and multilateral rule making in the WTO. We argue that the optimal policy mix varies across countries and that there is a need for differentiation in the design and application of rules in trade agreements as well as for a more explicit focus on evaluation of the impacts of policies.

We study the symmetric mixed strategy equilibrium of a dynamic model where at each instant two exporting firms choose their probability of foreign direct investment (FDI). The first firm’s FDI generates cost-lowering spillovers for the second and leads to local imitation, thereby intensifying competition. While an increase in imitation risk usually makes FDI less likely, there exist parameter values for which the converse holds. The key point is that by delaying the second firm’s switch to FDI, an increase in imitation risk can increase the value of being first to invest, thereby increasing the equilibrium probability of FDI.

We construct an oligopoly model in which a multinational firm has a superior technology compared to local firms. Workers employed by the multinational acquire knowledge of its superior technology. The multinational may pay a wage premium to prevent local firms from hiring its workers and thus gaining access to their knowledge. In this setting, the host government has an incentive to attract FDI due to technology transfer to local firms or the wage premium earned by employees of the multinational firm. However, when FDI is particularly attractive to the multinational firm, the host government has an incentive to discourage FDI.

How does the nature of contractual relationships between a multinational and its local suppliers affect backward linkages and welfare in the local industry? We address this question in a two-tier oligopoly model where a multinational transfers technology to its suppliers if they accept an exclusive contract that precludes them from serving its local rivals. Invited suppliers balance the benefits of gaining access to new technology and the derived demand of the multinational against the opportunity of selling to other local firms. Exclusivity reduces competition among local suppliers and can lower backward linkages and local welfare relative to autarky.

We study foreign direct investment (FDI) by two independent investors/entrants into a two-tiered oligopolistic industry. An FDI subsidy at a single stage of production can be sufficient to resolve the coordination problem facing investors thereby inducing entry at both stages. However, due to linkage offsetting, FDI at both stages may yield lower domestic welfare than FDI at a single stage. Vertical integration not only solves the coordination problem, it also eliminates double marginalization. But since the integrated multinational does not sell the intermediate to local firms, its entry generates no vertical linkages and can yield lower welfare than FDI by independent firms.

We develop a symmetric two country model of foreign direct investment (FDI) that captures the internalization decision and its implications for both the rate and magnitude of innovations. When mode choice (licensing versus FDI) is fixed, a subsidy to multinational production increases the rate but decreases the size of innovations. When mode can switch, the rate and size of innovations both increase, provided the subsidy is not too large. Although innovation size decreases for industries where firms already were choosing FDI, innovation size increases for industries where firms switch from licensing to FDI because multinationals choose larger innovations than licensors.

This paper develops a product cycle model with endogenous innovation, imitation, and foreign direct investment (FDI). We use this model to determine how stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in the South affects innovation, imitation and FDI. We find that stronger IPR protection keeps multinationals safer from imitation, but no more so than Northern firms. Instead, the increased difficulty of imitation generates resource wasting and imitation disincentive effects that reduce both FDI and innovation. The greater resources absorbed in imitation crowd out FDI. Reduced FDI then transmits resource scarcity in the South back to the North and consequently contracts innovation.

This article develops a North–South product cycle model in which innovation, imitation and the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) are all endogenously determined. In the model, a strengthening of intellectual property right (IPR) protection in the South reduces the rate of imitation and it increases the flow of FDI. Indeed, the increase in FDI more than offsets the decline in the extent of production undertaken by Southern imitators so that the South’s share of the global basket of goods increases. Furthermore, while multinationals charge higher prices than Southern imitators, real wages of Southern workers increase while those of Northern workers fall.

An extensive theoretical literature generates ambiguous predictions concerning the effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) reform on industrial development. The impact depends on whether multinational enterprises (MNEs) expand production in reforming countries and the extent of decline in imitative activity. We examine the responses of U.S.-based MNEs and domestic industrial production to a set of intellectual property rights reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. Following reform, MNEs expand the scale of their activities. MNEs that make extensive use of intellectual property disproportionately increase their use of inputs. There is an overall expansion of industrial activity after reform, and highly disaggregated trade data indicate higher exports of new goods. These results suggest that the expansion of multinational activity more than offsets any decline in imitative activity.

This article examines how patent protection in developing countries affects the technology licensing strategy of US multinational firms and the associated technology transfer flows. Strengthening patent rights lowers appropriability hazards and so reduces the firms’ reliance on affiliated licensing as the more secure means of transfer (the internalization effect). However lower appropriability hazards also encourage the firms to increase the volume of technology transfer via licensing both within and outside the firm (the appropriability effect). Which effect prevails depends on the underlying technological complexity of the firms’ product. We find that a strengthening of patent protection in the host country increases the incentive to license innovations to unaffiliated parties. While unaffiliated licensing rises among all firms, the volume of affiliated licensing falls among complex-technology firms but rises among simple-technology firms. The positive appropriability effect on affiliated licensing is strong enough among simple-technology firms that the entire composition of their licensing further shifts towards affiliated parties. The results are significant for recent work on the internalization theories of multinational firms and the interaction between firm strategy and the institutional environment, as well as for patent policy in the developing world, where access to knowledge is critical.

In a North–South vertically differentiated duopoly we analyze (i) the effects of parallel import (PI) policies on price competition and (ii) the interdependence of national PI policies. Prices can be higher in the North if both countries permit PIs relative to when only the South does. If governments maximize national welfare and demand asymmetry across countries is sufficiently large, the North forbids PIs to ensure its firm sells in the South and international price discrimination — the South’s most preferred market outcome — obtains. When demand structures are relatively similar across countries, the North permits PIs and uniform pricing — its most preferred outcome — results.

We develop a North–South model in which a Northern monopolist can fully exercise its market power globally only if the North practises national exhaustion of intellectual property rights (IPR) and the South prohibits imitation. The firm’s export incentive turns out to be a major determinant of equilibrium policy choices and their welfare effects. The North has a stronger preference for international exhaustion if the South forbids imitation, something the South is actually more willing to do under national exhaustion. Shutting down Southern imitation increases global welfare if and only if it is necessary for inducing the firm to export.

Under external reference pricing (ERP) the price that a government permits a firm to charge in its market depends upon the firm’s prices in other countries. In a two-country (home and foreign) model where demand is asymmetric across countries, we show that home’s unilaterally optimal ERP policy permits the home firm to engage in a threshold level of international price discrimination above which it is (just) willing to export. If the firm faces a price control abroad or bargains over price with the foreign government, an ERP policy can even yield higher home welfare than a direct price control.

In a two-country (home and foreign) model in which the home producer of a branded pharmaceutical product faces generic competition in each market, we analyze home’s optimal policy choices regarding two major types of price regulations: external reference pricing (ERP) and direct price controls. Home’s nationally optimal ERP policy lowers domestic price while maintaining the firm’s export incentive. This ERP policy results in a negative international price spillover that the foreign country can (partly) offset via a local price control. Generic competition in either market reduces home’s welfare gain from instituting an ERP policy. Weaker competition abroad or a greater weight on firm profits relative to consumer surplus in home’s welfare function makes it more likely that home prefers an ERP policy to a price control. While international integration of national generic markets can improve welfare, such is not the case if it causes home to relax its ERP policy.

We analyze how a price control and the threat of compulsory licensing (CL) affect consumer access in a developing country (South) to a patented foreign product. In the model, the Southern government sets the level of the price control on a Northern patent-holder who chooses between entry and voluntary licensing (VL). While entry incurs a higher fixed cost, licensed production is of lower quality. If the patent-holder does not work its patent locally, the South is free to use CL. The threat of CL: ensures that consumers have access to (a lower quality version of) the patented good when the patent-holder chooses not to work its patent locally; improves the terms at which VL occurs; can cause the patent-holder to switch from VL to entry; and can delay consumer access when CL replaces VL or entry. We also show that a price control and CL are mutually reinforcing instruments.

We analyze bargaining between a developing country (South) and a multinational firm over the local price of its patented product. We use an alternating offers bargaining game in which the South can resort to compulsory licensing (CL) if the two parties fail to reach agreement by a certain deadline. The presence of international price spillovers introduces two novel features into the standard bargaining problem: the surplus from entry prior to the CL deadline may be negative, and CL can yield higher surplus than entry. We establish conditions under which equilibrium may exhibit immediate entry, preemptive entry just prior to the CL deadline, or the occurrence of CL. The South necessarily gains from the threat of CL if the joint payoff under entry is higher relative to CL but can lose if it is lower…

In a stylised model involving a developing country (called South) and a foreign patent holder, we analyse whether and how the incidence and social value of compulsory licensing (CL) depends upon the South’s patent protection policy. If South is free to deny patent protection, CL fails to arise in equilibrium and the option to use it makes both parties worse off. If South is obliged to offer patent protection, CL can occur and even yield a Pareto improvement. The ability to control price increases the South’s incentive for patent protection as well as the likelihood of CL…

This paper develops a North-South model to evaluate the South’s incentive for patent protection when a Northern firm’s investment in quality-enhancing research and development (R&D) is affected by its patent policy. The model is used to (a) evaluate the impact of requiring the South to fulfill its key WTO obligation of instituting patent protection and (b) to address the role of two major flexibilities that WTO members enjoy with respect to their patent policies: the freedom to implement exhaustion policies of their choosing and the right to use compulsory licensing (CL) subject to certain stipulations. Two forces drive the model: how much the firm invests in R&D and whether or not selling in the South maximizes its global profit. CL improves consumer access in the South and can even raise innovation and global welfare. Provided the South implements patent protection, innovation and welfare are higher if the North follows national as opposed to international exhaustion. However, the South’s incentive for patent protection is not necessarily stronger under national exhaustion. Not only is CL more likely to be used under international exhaustion, the welfare gain resulting from its application is also higher relative to that under national exhaustion.

Using Bernheim and Whinston (1986) common agency game, we endogenize trade policy in a duopoly composed of a domestic firm and a foreign firm, where both firms influence the domestic government’s trade policy via their contributions. The foreign firm can jump over trade restrictions by undertaking foreign direct investment (FDI) in the domestic market. The government prefers a voluntary export restraint (VER) to a tariff for two reasons. First, a VER leads to higher contributions from the foreign firm than a tariff. Second, a VER provides a higher level of protection to the domestic firm without generating FDI by the foreign firm.

We examine the consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) policies in a general equilibrium setting with several oligopolistic industries. By shifting labor demand across countries, FDI raises the wage in the host country and lowers the wage in the source country, thereby raising profits of source country firms at the expense of host country firms. The extent of cross-ownership of firms, the relative number of firms and the relative supply of skilled labor alter the impact of FDI policy on national welfare. The tension between profits and wages determines whether the optimal policy is designed to encourage FDI.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) can take place either through the direct entry of foreign firms or the acquisition of existing domestic firms. The preferences of a foreign firm and a welfare-maximizing host country government over these two modes of FDI are examined in the presence of costly technology transfer. The trade-off between technology transfer and market competition emerges as a key determinant of preferences. The clash between the foreign firm’s equilibrium choice and the local government’s ranking of the two modes of entry can provide a rationale for some frequently observed FDI restrictions.

What are the underlying rationales for industrial policy? Does empirical evidence support the use of industrial policy for correcting market failures that plague the process of industrialization? This article addresses these questions through a critical survey of the analytical literature on industrial policy. It also reviews some recent industry successes and argues that public interventions have played only a limited role. Moreover, the recent ascendance and dominance of international production networks in the sectors in which developing countries once had considerable success implies a further limitation on the potential role of industrial policies as traditionally understood. Overall, there appears to be little empirical support for an activist government policy even though market failures exist that can, in principle, justify the use of industrial policy…

This paper develops a simple two-country model of quality-improving innovation to study the role tariff barriers play in shaping the welfare impact of global patent protection. We show that international patent policy coordination via national treatment is desirable only if tariff barriers between countries are sufficiently low. Furthermore, if countries are free to impose their optimal tariffs on one another, requiring national treatment in patent protection unambiguously lowers world welfare. Hence, constraining tariffs helps pave the way for international coordination over patent protection. This insight provides a potential rationale for the historical sequencing of policy reforms observed in the global trading system: multilateral rules on intellectual property were adopted only after decades of trade negotiations had succeeded in substantially reducing global tariffs.

We examine sales and leasing of a durable good in an asymmetric duopoly. We show that the inefficient firm leases more than the efficient firm, and that an increase in unit costs implies a higher ratio of leased units to sales.

We investigate the relationship between process and product R&D and compare the incentives for both types of R&D under different modes of market competition (Bertrand versus Cournot). It is shown that: (i) process R&D investments increase with the degree of product differentiation and firms invest more in product R&D when they can do process R&D than when they cannot; (ii) Bertrand firms have a stronger incentive for product R&D whereas Cournot firms invest more in process R&D; and (iii) cooperation in product R&D promotes both types of R&D relative to competition whereas cooperation in both types of R&D discourages R&D relative to cooperation in just product R&D.

We examine oligopolistic markets with both intrabrand and interbrand competition. We characterize equilibrium contracts involving a royalty (or wholesale price) and a fee when each upstream “rm contracts with multiple downstream “rms. Royalties control competition between own downstream “rms at the expense of making them passive against rivals. When the number of downstream “rms is endogenous, each upstream “rm chooses to have only one downstream “rm. This result is in sharp contrast to previous literature where competitors bene”t by having a larger number of independent down-stream “rms under only “xed fee payments. We discuss why allowing upstream “rms to charge per-unit payments in addition to “xed fees dramatically alters their strategic incentives.