Stronger protection of patent rights is thought to spur innovation through securing returns to R&D investments. Those investments must be financed, however, suggesting that the responsiveness of R&D to patent reforms varies with financial development levels. We examine the joint impact of...

We study the international protection of consumer data in a model where data usage benefits firms at the expense of their customers. We show that a multinational firm does not balance this trade-off efficiently if its data usage lacks (full) transparency or if consumers' privacy preference...

This paper investigates the role of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with complex chapters covering intellectual property rights (IPRs) in determining the magnitude and composition of countries’ trade. Changes in the global IPRs environment have increasingly been negotiated within the...

We study how provincial-level enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) affects Chinese firms’ decisions regarding exit, export, and the channels through which to receive technology transfer. Our findings provide insights into how variations in IPRs enforcement alter productivity. Our...

Money laundering is the process of moving proceeds from illicit activities into the legal economy. We develop a monopolistic competition model incorporating a criminal enterprise which chooses between laundering through offshore financial investments or by acquiring legitimate establishments,...