Assessing the Trade Impacts of International Differences in Patent Regimes

9410625各国专利法的马斯库斯差异一直是乌拉圭回合关贸总协定多边谈判、北美自由贸易区谈判以及美国惩罚外国不公平贸易做法的一个主要问题。有人认为，发展中国家薄弱的专利法往往会导致创新公司退出保护有限的服务市场，从而扭曲国际贸易和投资流动。然而，关于不同的国际专利法是否倾向于扩大或限制贸易，几乎没有可靠的信息。理论模型表明，两种相互冲突的结果中的任何一种都是可能的。一方面，由于更强大的专利为公司提供了额外的市场力量，公司可能会选择通过出口限制和价格歧视来更大地行使这种市场力量。另一方面，更强有力的专利法往往会扩大创新公司的市场规模。重要的是要确定这类国内法规(而不是标准贸易壁垒)如何影响国际贸易。这个项目将具体说明一系列理论模型，这些模型允许由于专利法的边际变化而导致不同的市场结构和交易行为的变化。此外，计量经济学模型将被用来对理论模型产生的假设进行实证检验。***

9410625 MASKUS Differences in patent laws across countries have been a major issue in the multilateral GATT negotiations in the Uruguay Round, in the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Area, and in U.S. efforts to discipline foreign unfair trade practices. It is argued that weak patent laws in developing countries tend to distort international trade and investment flows by inducing innovative firms to withdraw from servicing markets with limited protection. There is, however, virtually no reliable information about whether varying international patent laws tend to expand or restrict trade. Theoretical models suggest that either of two conflicting outcomes are possible. On the one hand, because stronger patents provide additional market power to firms, the firms may choose to engage in greater exercise of that market power through export limitations and price discrimination. On the other hand, stronger patent laws tend to expand the available market size for innovative firms. It is important to determine how domestic regulations of this sort, as opposed to standard trade barriers, influence international trade. This project will specify a series of theoretical models that allow for various market structures and changes in trading behavior induced by marginal shifts in patent laws. In addition, econometric models will be used to test empirically the hypotheses generated by the theoretical models. ***