Patents, trade secrets and international technology transfer

I study the impact of intellectual property rights on foreign direct investment and technology transfer in developing countries. I find that strengthening patent protection may stimulate foreign investment, but fails to encourage technology transfer. In contrast, strengthening trade secret protection may achieve both goals. These findings suggest that the standard approach to modeling intellectual property rights in terms of a single dimension obscures important differences in the effect of individual aspects of intellectual property law. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.