Intellectual property rights are legal constraints that limit entry in industries where incumbentsare innovators. The set of legal constraints is the same for all industries, withoutconsidering that the externalities created by entry are not necessarily negative for the incumbentor that the...

We study innovation incentives in the presence of "product hopping," whereby the incumbent patents a minor modification of a drug (e.g., a new delivery method) and invests in marketing to switch demand towards the minor modification. In our setting firms compete sequentially to discover two...

In a continuous time model with stochastic demand, two firms compete in R&D, with the lead patent affecting the probability of success of a second innovation competing in the same product market; the size and direction of this effect characterize the level of appropriability. From this...

We study an infinite-horizon cumulative innovation model, in which patents are characterized bytheir length and the likelihood of being ruled valid in a patent infringement litigation. Strengtheningpatent protection via a greater validity or length has two opposing effects on innovation: 1)...

We investigate the drivers of firm level productivity in catching-up economies by jointly estimating its relationship to innovation and competition using data from the EBRD-WB Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The findings confirm...