Competition and Innovation

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Michele Boldrin, Washington University, Juan Correa Allamand Ministry of Finance, Chile. David K. Levine, Washington University and Carmine Ornaghi, University of Southampton have posted a controversial paper on Competition and Innovation.

ABSTRACT: Which kind of intellectual property regime is more favorable to innovation: one that enforces patents or one that does not? Economic theory is unable to answer this question, as valid arguments can be made both for and against patents; hence we must turn to empirical evidence. In this paper, we review empirical evidence gathered by other researchers and add new evidence of our own. We conclude that the evidence suggests that patents do not promote innovation, but instead retard it.