It is widely argued that international extension of the patent system hinders innovation and growth in developing countries by restricting access to technological inputs. I re-examine the connection between patents, innovation and development by assessing the extent to which the U.S. patent...

Intellectual property rests on a simple incentive rationale: without imitation barriers, innovators rationally decline to invest. But this blanket proposition is incompatible with markets where innovation proceeds without substantial recourse to intellectual property and imitation is widespread....

Intellectual property rests on a simple incentive rationale: without imitation barriers, innovators rationally decline to invest. But this blanket proposition is incompatible with markets where innovation proceeds without substantial recourse to intellectual property and imitation is widespread....

A largely unqualified consensus among substantial portions of the scholarly, policymaking, advocacy and business communities has taken the view that the U.S. patent system, since approximately the early 1980s, has endangered innovation by adopting historically strong forms of patent protection...

It is generally assumed that stronger intellectual property protections have adverse competitive effects by raising entry costs and shielding incumbents. This book identifies a significant range of circumstances in which stronger IP protections lower entry costs for innovators who have robust...

The law-and-economics literature typically depicts certification intermediaries, such as law firms, auditors, underwriters, investment banks and rating agencies, as socially valuable market participants who ameliorate informational asymmetries that would otherwise distort pricing or transaction...

It is commonly observed that certification intermediaries mitigate informational asymmetries by “lending” reputational capital to support transacting parties' quality commitments. However, this proposition is challenged by cases in which well-established intermediaries have failed to detect...