Do Tighter Intellectual Property Rights Raise High-Tech Exports to the Developing World?

Despite over 20 years of debate, the TRIPs agreement remains very contentious. This paper evaluates the impact of tightening intellectual property rights (IPRs) in developing countries on developed countries' exports over the 1962-2000 period. Colonial origin is used to isolate exogenous variation in IPRs. The impact is then identified by examining the across industry difference in sensitivity to IPRs. The pre-TRIPs and post-TRIPs periods are examined separately. I find that for each 1% increase in the strength of IPRs, under the TRIPs agreement, developed countries' high-tech exports increased by 1.3% which amounts to additional exports of approximately $680 million per year (1994 US dollars).