How do foreign patent rights affect U.S. exports, affiliate sales, and licenses?

This paper analyzes how foreign patent rights (FPRs) affect US exports, affiliate sales, and licenses. Our approach is distinctive in three ways. We apply ownership, location, and internalization concepts to link FPRs with servicing decisions. We account for the simultaneity of servicing decisions. We estimate the relative effects of FPRs on exports, affiliate sales, and licenses. Empirical findings show strong FPRs increase US affiliate sales and licenses, particularly across countries with strong imitative abilities. Further, FPRs have a larger effect on US knowledge transferred outside the country and firm, relative to knowledge located inside the country and internalized inside the firm.

Pamela J. Smith

Journal of International Economics

December 2001

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