Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Making of a Regime: United States Foreign Economic Policy, Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Development

近15年来，美国一直带头倡导建立保护知识产权的全球制度。随着1995年12月《关税及贸易总协定》乌拉圭回合的签署，这一目标实现了。《与贸易有关的知识产权包括假冒商品贸易协定》要求所有签署国遵守美国所倡导的强有力的西方式知识产权制度。然而，美国对确保强有力的知识产权制度感兴趣是最近才出现的现象。最初的研究表明，在早期阶段，美国并不支持强有力的知识产权保护，特别是在保护外国知识产权免受美国复制方面。这项博士论文研究资助允许对知识产权作为一项全球政策进行分析。讨论的两个具体问题是：1)美国在知识产权问题上的立场是如何从主张弱知识产权保护转变为支持全球强有力的知识产权保护的？2)鉴于美国在知识产权问题上的早期经验，将如此强大的全球知识产权制度强加给发展中国家的潜在影响是什么？为此，本研究回答了全球知识产权问题是如何演变的，谁是政策形成的主要参与者，以及新政策的潜在影响是什么。定性和定量的实证分析方法都被用来解决这些问题。本文采用定性研究的方法追溯了美国在知识产权问题上的历史经验，证明了国会等国内机构和利益集团在将知识产权问题提升为全球性问题方面发挥的关键作用。定量研究是用来检验知识产权对发展进程的影响，美国和其他国家认为，遵循西方的知识产权制度将会加强知识产权对发展进程的影响。这个博士论文研究项目有望大大提高我们对这个有趣和重要问题的理解。

For nearly fifteen years the United States led the way in advocating a global regime for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). With the signing of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in December, 1995, that goal was achieved. The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, Including Trade in Counterfeit Goods commits all signatory nations to the strong Western-style IPR system that the United States has advocated. However the United States' interest in securing a strong IPR regime is a very recent phenomena. Initial research suggests that early in its infancy, the United States did not favor strong IPR, particularly in terms of protecting foreign intellectual property from duplication in the US. This Doctoral Dissertation Research grant allows an analysis of IPR as a global policy. The two specific questions addressed are: 1) how did the United States' position on IPR evolve from one of advocating weak IPR protection to one of favoring strong global protection of IPR? 2) What is the potential impact of imposing such a strong global IPR regime on developing countries, given the United States' early experience with the IPR issue? To this end, the research answers how the global IPR issue evolved, who were the primary actors in forming the policy, and what are the potential effects of the new policy. Both qualitative and quantitative empirical methods of analysis are employed to address these questions. Qualitative research is used to trace the US historical experience with IPR, demonstrating the pivotal role that domestic institutions such as the Congress and interest groups played in elevating IPR to a global issue. Quantitative research is utilized to test the effects of IPR on the development process which the US and other countries have argued will be enhanced by following a Western-style IPR system. This Doctoral Dissertation Research project promises to enhance substantially our understanding of this interesting and important problem.