Intellectual Property Protection,R&D Investment And Global Value Chain Status

The changing form of the international division of labor has made transnational production more vertically integrated,and the concept of the global value chains has been proposed.The status of global value chain measures a country’s position in the division of labor in transnational production and reflects a country’s economic strength and international status.As an intangible property right,intellectual property is a form of ownership of technology,patents,and trademarks,and is an important factor affecting economic development.As the technological requirements of transnational production processes increase,countries and enterprises need to strengthen their R&D investment to achieve technological advancement.Many late-developing countries have achieved their economic emergence and participated in the upstream activities of global value chains by rationalizing their IP protection systems and increasing their R&D investment,thus improving their status in global value chains.Therefore,it is important to study the relationship between IPR protection,R&D investment,and global value chain status.Based on the theory of property rights and the theory of value chain upgrading,this paper explores the mechanism of the impact of intellectual property protection on the status of global value chains and the mechanism of the mediating utility of R&D investment.IPR protection positively affects GVC’s position by intensifying the national competition effect and technology spillover effect,but it also hinders the upgrading of GVC’s position by inhibiting "dry school".In addition,the increase in IPR protection will increase the level of R&D investment through the innovation incentive and innovation push effect,and the increase of R&D investment will improve the GVC’s position through the result transformation effect.This paper also constructs a country-industry IP protection index through GP index,national enforcement efforts and industry characteristic variables,and measures the global value chain status of each industry in each country based on Koopman’s trade value-added method.This paper calculates the actual IP protection index and global value chain status of 37 countries and regions of WIOD and 18sub-sectors of the manufacturing industry from 2000 to 2012.In addition,a heterogeneity analysis is conducted to determine whether the impact of IP protection on GVC status is consistent across different types of countries and different types of industries;finally,a mediating effect model is used to determine the role of R&D investment in the impact of IP protection on GVC status.Finally,the mediating effect model was used to determine the role of R&D investment in the impact of IP protection on GVC status.The following conclusions are drawn from the empirical evidence:first,the setup and enforcement of China’s IPR protection system is not fully symmetrical;second,based on the measured GVC status index,China’s manufacturing industry is still locked in the low end of the value chain;third,there is a positive effect of the IPR protection on GVC status in general,but there are differences in the role played by different types of countries and different types of industries,and in developed countries and labor-intensive industries,the promotion effect of IP protection is not obvious;fourth,through the analysis of the mediating effect,it is found that there is a mediating role for R&D investment in the impact of IPR protection on GVC status.And we propose targeted policy recommendations in response to the empirical results.