Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome
Do intellectual property (IP) rights on existing technologies hinder subsequent innovation? Using newly-collected data on the sequencing of the human genome by the public Human Genome Project and the private rm Celera, this paper estimates the impact of Celera's gene-level IP on subsequent...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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University of Chicago Press
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78858 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-1505 |
| _version_ | 1811098368690094080 |
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| author | Williams, Heidi L. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Williams, Heidi L. |
| author_sort | Williams, Heidi L. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Do intellectual property (IP) rights on existing technologies hinder subsequent
innovation? Using newly-collected data on the sequencing of the human genome by
the public Human Genome Project and the private rm Celera, this paper estimates
the impact of Celera's gene-level IP on subsequent scienti c research and product
development. Genes initially sequenced by Celera were held with IP for up to two
years, but moved into the public domain once re-sequenced by the public e ort.
Across a range of empirical speci cations, I nd evidence that Celera's IP led to
reductions in subsequent scienti c research and product development on the order of
20 to 30 percent. Taken together, these results suggest that Celera's short-term IP
had persistent negative e ects on subsequent innovation relative to a counterfactual
of Celera genes having always been in the public domain. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:13:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/78858 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:13:57Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/788582022-10-03T11:15:03Z Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome Williams, Heidi L. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Williams, Heidi L. Williams, Heidi L. Do intellectual property (IP) rights on existing technologies hinder subsequent innovation? Using newly-collected data on the sequencing of the human genome by the public Human Genome Project and the private rm Celera, this paper estimates the impact of Celera's gene-level IP on subsequent scienti c research and product development. Genes initially sequenced by Celera were held with IP for up to two years, but moved into the public domain once re-sequenced by the public e ort. Across a range of empirical speci cations, I nd evidence that Celera's IP led to reductions in subsequent scienti c research and product development on the order of 20 to 30 percent. Taken together, these results suggest that Celera's short-term IP had persistent negative e ects on subsequent innovation relative to a counterfactual of Celera genes having always been in the public domain. 2013-05-10T18:04:48Z 2013-05-10T18:04:48Z 2013-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0022-3808 1537-534X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78858 Heidi L. Williams. Journal of Political Economy Vol. 121, No. 1 (February 2013), pp. 1-27. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-1505 en_US http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669706 Journal of Political Economy Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf University of Chicago Press Heidi Williams |
| spellingShingle | Williams, Heidi L. Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome |
| title | Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome |
| title_full | Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome |
| title_fullStr | Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome |
| title_short | Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome |
| title_sort | intellectual property rights and innovation evidence from the human genome |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78858 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-1505 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT williamsheidil intellectualpropertyrightsandinnovationevidencefromthehumangenome |