The authors try to test statistically whether the flow of resources between poor and rich countries has in fact conformed to the “1 per cent” target defined by the United Nations. Basis for testing several hypotheses are data published by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD.

Developing countries tend to take a negative view of the protection of intellectual property rights as reflected in the TRIPs agreement, as this seems to conflict with their own developmental needs. As the following article points out, there are, however, a number of reasons why developing...