Should the Government Protect its Basic Research?

Cozzi, Guido and Galli, Silvia (2017): Should the Government Protect its Basic Research?

Abstract

Basic research is mainly performed publicly. Yet in the US public research findings were not patentable until 1980, and in other countries are not yet patentable. Patentability renders public research more directed, with less potential waste, but it also restricts private applied research. This paper shows, by means of a multi-stage Schumpeterian growth model, that in the long run the first effect is bound to dominate.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: R&D and Growth; Sequential Innovation; Public R&D; Patent Laws; Bayh-Dole Act.
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H4 - Publicly Provided Goods; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights

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