Since the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, governments have been implementing containment measures aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus, including restrictions to ...human mobility. The ability to adapt to the pandemic and respond to containment measures can be bound by socioeconomic conditions, which are heterogeneous in large urban areas of low-income and middle-income countries. In this paper, we analyse mobility changes following the implementation of containment measures in Bogotá, Colombia. We characterise the mobility network before and during the pandemic and analyse its evolution and changes between January and July 2020. We observe a general reduction in mobility trends, but the overall connectivity between different areas of the city remains after the lockdown, reflecting the resilience of the mobility network. Then, we estimate a gravity model to assess the effect of socioeconomic conditions on mobility flows. We find that the responses to lockdown policies depend on the socioeconomic conditions of the population. Before the pandemic, the population with better socioeconomic conditions shows higher mobility flows. Since the lockdown, mobility presents a general decrease, but the population with worse socioeconomic conditions shows lower reductions in mobility flows. We conclude by deriving policy implications.
Using a complex-network perspective, this paper empirically explores the determinants of the process through which countries, given their capabilities, specialize in agricultural production. Using ...production data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the period 1993-2013, we characterize the agricultural production space as a time-sequence of bipartite networks, connecting countries to the agricultural products they produce. We then project this representation in the agricultural production spaces, linking countries or products according to their similarity in production profiles, and we identify properties and determinants underlying their evolution. We find that, despite the unprecedented pressure that food systems have been undergoing in recent years, the agricultural production space is a very dense network displaying well-defined and stable communities of countries and products. We also show that the observed country community structures are not only shaped by environmental conditions, but also by economic, socio-political, and technological factors. We conclude by discussing the implications of such findings on our understanding of the complex relationships involving production capabilities and specialization patterns.
This paper revises and updates the Campi-Nuvolari index of intellectual property protection for plant varieties. The new index provides yearly scores for the period 1961-2018 for 104 countries, which ...have legislation on plant variety protection in force. The new evidence highlights the ongoing shift towards more similar and stronger systems of intellectual property rights (IPRs) worldwide, regardless of individual characteristics of countries. The signing of the TRIPS and trade agreements with TRIPS-Plus provisions are major drivers of this process. In addition, certain characteristics of countries such as the regulatory environment, the level of human capital, the importance of agricultural production, and openness to trade, are also significant determinants of the evolution of IPRs systems. We conclude by discussing other possible applications of the data.
This article explores how the strengthening of intellectual property (IP) protection affects agricultural productivity in a panel of countries for the period 1961–2011. Using an index of IP ...protection for plant varieties, we study the effect of stronger intellectual property rights (IPRs) on cereal yields and two different types of cereals: Open‐pollinated (wheat) and hybrid (maize). We found that the strengthening of IPRs has a positive effect on productivity of cereals for high‐ and low‐income countries. However, we found no significant effect for middle‐income countries. In addition, we found that becoming a member of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights negatively affects cereal yields. Finally, we found evidence of the existence of nonlinearities in the effect of IPRs on agricultural yields, which confirms a threshold effect of IPRs that also varies for countries of different income level. The findings support the hypothesis that country specificities are important in determining the effect of IPRs and imply that there is no unique system that fits all.
•We construct an index measuring the strength of IP protection for plant varieties.•IP strength for plant varieties has been increasing in all countries.•Determinants of IP level are not equal for ...DCs and LDCs pointing to non-linear relations.•The TRIPS Agreement drives the process towards stronger levels of IP protection.•The effect of IPRs on agricultural product is not significant for LDCs.
In this paper, we construct a new index measuring the strength of intellectual property (IP) protection for plant varieties in 69 countries over the period 1961–2011. We examine the statistical properties of the index and compare it with other indicators of IP protection. We conclude that the index provides a reasonable synthetic assessment of the relative strength of IP protection in plant varieties across countries. In addition, we study the main determinants of the evolution of the index and examine the patterns of correlation between the index and agricultural production.
•Analyzes the effect of trade agreements (TAs) with and without IPRs on bilateral trade flows.•Both types of TAs increase bilateral trade flows, but unevenly for developed and developing ...countries.•TAs with IP chapters imply important reforms for developing countries hardly compensated by the trade-related gains.
The global process of strengthening and harmonization of intellectual property rights (IPRs) systems has been intensified in the last twenty five years by the signing of trade agreements (TAs) that include chapters with intellectual property (IP) provisions and other trade-related issues. This paper provides a first exploration of whether and how the signing of TAs with IP chapters influences bilateral trade flows for a balanced panel of 110 countries and the period 1995–2013. We address methodological issues related to the assessment of the effect of TAs on bilateral trade. We use matching econometrics to evaluate the treatment of TAs with and without IP chapters. In addition, we estimate the effects of TAs on bilateral trade in a more dynamic fashion using a panel data approach based on the gravity model. Also, we perform our analysis for trade in low- and high-IP intensive products. We found that both types of TAs increase bilateral trade but TAs with no IPRs chapters have a stronger positive effect on trade. However, if we include lags to consider that TAs with IP chapters might need a longer implementation time, the net expected increase on trade is similar for both types of TAs. We also found that the effects depend on the development level of countries and on the IP intensity of products. We found a clear positive effect for developed countries, but we do not observe important gains for developing countries in all sectors and to all destinations derived from TAs with IP chapters. This raises the question of whether trade gains can compensate the effort related with IP reforms.
This paper analyses the co-evolution of scientific progress and intellectual property protection in plant breeding and the debates generated in its design and implementation. It relates the ...institutional history to several problems related with incentives to innovate, appropriability of innovation rents, disclosure and cumulativeness, and diffusion and access to biological resources. We identify three main issues that were fiercely discussed along history: firstly, whether plant varieties and other biological resources could be considered as inventions or simple products of nature, secondly, how to provide incentives to plant breeders without preventing access to innovation and looking upon the contribution of farmers to obtain present improved varieties, and, thirdly, the social cost of generating monopolies in plant breeding and agriculture as food producers. These three issues have shaped the debates and remained controversial until our days. The analysis shows that legal and scientific factors evolved at different paces, resulting in different IPRs systems, and giving raise to several problems.
Do creative industries have positive spillovers for the local economy in middle-income countries? While in high-income countries several studies have shown that creative industries are highly ...innovative and productive, positively impacting the local economy, the evidence is scarce for middle-income countries. Using employment data, we studied the agglomeration patterns of creative industries in Colombia between 2008 and 2017. We found a positive relationship between creative industries' agglomeration and employment in non-creative services industries. However, using a shift-share instrumental variable approach, we found no significant causality of an increase in creative industries' employment on employment growth in other industries.
•The strengthening of IPRs systems has a negative effect on agricultural trade volumes.•The effect of IPRs on the intensive margin of trade is also negative.•Developing countries are more negatively ...affected by strong IPRs systems.•The probability of creating new bilateral trade links increases with the importer’s IPRs.•IPRs systems have a positive effect on the extensive margin of trade.
The signing of the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) had led to a process of global harmonization and tightening of intellectual property rights (IPRs) systems. As part of this process, the use of IPRs in agriculture has been increasing in the last decades. This paper studies the effect of intellectual property rights on agricultural trade, for the post-TRIPS period (1995–2011), using a new yearly index of IPRs, for 60 developed and developing countries. We study the effect of stronger IPRs on total trade, bilateral trade, and trade margins using different econometric techniques. We found that the strengthening of IPRs has been having a negative and uneven effect on agricultural trade at different levels of disaggregation. The gravity estimation showed that both the IPRs of the importer and the exporter have negative effects on total bilateral trade and that the probability of creating new bilateral trade links increases with the importer’s IPRs. Finally, we found that stronger IPRs have a negative effect on the intensive margin of trade and a positive impact on the extensive margin. Overall, the evidence shows that agricultural trade related to the developing world has been more negatively affected, which calls the attention to the idea that a common system can equally work for all countries.
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