International production and the multinational enterprise

A Global Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights The New Enclosures

One of the main stylised facts that has emerged from the recent literature on global value chains is that bilateral trade imbalances in gross terms can differ substantially from those measured in value added terms. However, the factors underlying the extent and sign of the differences between the two measures have so far not been investigated. Here, we propose a novel decomposition of bilateral gross trade balances that accounts for the differences between gross and value added concepts. The bilateral analysis contributes conceptually to the literature on double counting in trade by identifying the trade flow in which value added is actually recorded for the first time in international trade statistics. We apply our decomposition framework to the development of intra-EU-27 trade balances from 1995 to 2011 and show that a growing share of intra-EU bilateral trade balances is due to demand in countries other than the two direct trading partners. The latter accounted for 25 per cent of the total variance of intra-EU gross bilateral trade balances in 2011, which marks a considerable rise from 3 per cent in 1995.

Accounting for the Differences Between Gross and Value Added Trade Balances

This paper studies the great collapse in value added trade using a structural decomposition analysis. We show that changes in vertical specialization accounted for more than 40% of the great trade collapse. Second, we find that the drop in the overall level of demand accounted for roughly a quarter of the decline in value added exports while just under one third was due to compositional changes in final demand. Finally, we demonstrate that the dichotomy between services and manufacturing sectors observed in gross exports during the great trade collapse is not apparent in value added trade data.

https://wiiw.ac.at/the-great-collapse-in-value-added-trade-dlp-3585.pdf

The Great Collapse in Value Added Trade

This paper captures the political economy of technology transfer negotiations since the 1960s to address two key questions. The first question is whether the debates cater to country level technological needs in developing countries. To find answers to this, the paper critically reviews the progress made in understanding the role of technology and innovation capacity for economic development over the past decades and whether these find a place in the negotiations and deliberations as we have them today. The second question that the paper seeks to address is more forward looking, with a view to make a constructive contribution towards resolving some of the most longstanding issues in technology transfer. How and through what ways can international discussions on technology transfer be made to reflect the lessons learned up until now on how countries build technological capabilities and the challenges posed by the changing global environment for knowledge and technology?The analysis places a particular emphasis on the technology transfer-intellectual property rights (IPRs) nexus which, in many ways, has been at the heart of the international discourse on technology transfer. The authors conclude by identifying the main issues that remain outstanding in this discourse and propose some thoughts for the way forward.

Unpacking the International Technology Transfer Debate: Fifty Years and Beyond

Following the conclusion of the TRIPS Agreement, much has been written on the potential costs and benefits of stronger Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) protection in terms of its impact on innovation and technology transfer, as well as economic growth and welfare. This paper documents the development of IPR regimes within countries and internationally, before surveying the theoretical and empirical literature linking the protection of IPRs to economic growth, innovation and technology diffusion.

https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/36094/1/MPRA_paper_36094.pdf

Breitwieser Anja

Papers

Intellectual property rights, innovation and technology transfer: a survey