Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in Arab countries to encourage developed countries to transfer their technologies to Arab countries and its impact on economic growth using panel data of seven Arab countries in terms of patent protection, foreign direct investment (FDI) and the specific characteristics of each country for the period 1970–2011. The results of our simultaneous equations model suggest that FDI affects negatively growth in total factor productivity (TFP). They show that IPR protection stimulates TFP growth by attracting FDI and technology flows.

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