Abstract

The intellectual property (IP) law has been forcefully challenged by scholars and multiple anti-IP movementshave been pushed by activists in recent years. The critiques from scholars mainly focused on the enclosure ofinformation and knowledge enforced by IP law. And the activists of anti-IP movements argued for the openaccess to knowledge to promote creation.

This study proposes an endogenous economic growth model highlighting the role of open-access knowledge ineconomic growth. The solution of the model shows that the production efficiency of knowledge, the convertingefficiency from knowledge products into human capital, and the externality of knowledge products, will haveimpacts on the economic growth rate. The policy implication of this study is that government’s intervention,such as the subsidy to the knowledge production, investment in the open-access knowledge, and regulation onthe quality of knowledge products, will have positive effects on economic growth.

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