Assessing the Trade Impacts of International Differences in Patent Regimes

评估专利制度国际差异对贸易的影响

• 批准号: 9410625
• 负责人: Keith Maskus
• 金额: $ 6.4万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-08-01 至 1997-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9410625&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Assessing; Trade; Impacts; International; Differences

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. ***

各国专利法的差异一直是关贸总协定乌拉圭回合多边谈判、北美自由贸易区谈判以及美国约束外国不公平贸易行为的努力中的一个主要问题。 有人认为，发展中国家薄弱的专利法往往扭曲国际贸易和投资流动，诱使创新公司退出保护有限的服务市场。 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都是可能的。 一方面，由于较强的专利为公司提供了额外的市场力量，公司可能选择通过出口限制和价格歧视来更多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企业的市场规模。 重要的是，要确定这类国内法规，而不是标准的贸易壁垒，如何影响国际贸易。 本项目将详细说明一系列理论模型，这些模型考虑到各种市场结构和专利法边际变化引起的交易行为变化。 此外，计量经济学模型将用于实证检验理论模型产生的假设。 ***