اشاعه بین المللی و حقوق مالکیت معنوی : تجزیه و تحلیل تجربی

Does a stronger intellectual property rights regime lead to the faster diffusion of new products and technology? While there is a presumption that this is the case, our analysis of data on the international release patterns of Hollywood movies suggests a more complex story: although moderate standards of IPR encourage the spread of movies, either very weak or very strong property rights tend to slow the speed with which American movies are released abroad. This empirical finding is robust to a wide variety of specifications. Overall, it appears that while some recognition of IPR may encourage diffusion, very strong IPR may actually retard the speed of diffusion.

The reform of the global IPR system has ignited a particularly contentious debate over the advantages and disadvantages of IPR. One issue that has emerged as important is the impact of IPR on the speed of diffusion. Given almost every country receives the best part of its technology from abroad, the nature of this relationship is very important. However, no empirical study has tried to assess the relative influence of IPR on the international diffusion on new goods and services, resulting in a lack of empirical evidence to guide this aspect of the debate. This paper is the first to provide evidence on this issue. By employing a product level data set, dates can be established for when a product is first made available and subsequently how long it takes to reach a particular country. Such disaggregated data are particularly critical in this setting. While theory does provide some guidance in thinking about the implications of IPR reform for the speed to diffusion to foreign markets, ambiguities do arise. By studying firm behavior at the product level, this paper is uniquely placed to shed light on the subtleties of the relationship between IPR and international diffusion. In relation to these subtleties, the behavior of the major Hollywood studios is particularly interesting. Not only is Hollywood one of the major export earners for the United States, but it is also critically dependent on the protection of intellectual property rights for its success. Analysis of this industry reveals that the nuances suggested by the theoretical models are present in the data. In particular, a non-monotonic relationship between IPR and diffusion characterizes the release pattern of major Hollywood movies abroad: while moderate standards of IPR encourage the spread of movies, either weaker or stronger property rights tend to decrease the speed with which American movies are released abroad. This is a robust empirical finding that is consistent with a variety of specifications. Overall, it appears that while some IPR recognition may encourage diffusion, very strong IPR may actually retard the speed of diffusion. These results argue against any simple prediction about the implications of IPR reform for the speed of diffusion, suggesting instead that the nature and magnitude of the impact of IPR reform will depend critically on the initial standard of IPR, among other factors. Furthermore, the interplay of promotion, piracy and product lifecycles is common to many IPR dependent products (e.g. pharmaceuticals), so Hollywood's response to stronger IPR is unlikely to be too novel not to at least provide suggestive evidence more generally.