UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series
Information and intellectual property: The global challenges
Rishab Aiyer Ghosh & Luc Soete #2006-029The paper analyses the contribution of 'golden papers' - seminal works
whose ideas remain as fresh and relevant today as when they were first
published decades ago - and which continue to dominate academic
discourse among successive generations of scholars. The authors analyse
why two works written within an industrial development context: The
simple economics of basic scientific research, by Richard Nelson (1959)
and Kenneth Arrows Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for
Invention (1962), are so relevant in today’s knowledge-driven economic
paradigm. Focusing on the papers’ application to current global policy
debates on information/knowledge and intellectual property, they argue
that while the context has changed the essential nature of innovation -
driven by widespread access to the ability to replicate and improve -
remains the same. Hence a focus on endogenous innovation policy is as
relevant today as it was 50 years ago.
Key words: knowledge economy; science, technology and innovation;
intellectual property rights; institutional change
ISSN 1871-9872
Download the working paper (PDF)
