We develop a model in which stronger protection of intellectual property rights has an inverted U-shaped effect on innovation. Intellectual property rights protection allows the incumbent firms to capture part of the rents of commercial exploration that would otherwise accrue to the...

We develop a model in which stronger protection of intellectual property rights has an inverted U-shaped effect on innovation. Intellectual property rights protection allows the incumbent firms to capture part of the rents of commercial exploration that would otherwise accrue to the...

This paper challenges the key assumption in "idea based growth models" that innovation rents ultimately reward the creation of knowledge. In modern capitalist economies the agents that commercialize new ideas, the entrepreneurs, receive the bulk of the innovation rents and are generally the...