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Model of corporate intelligence, secrecy, and economic growth
Author(s) -
Parello Carmelo Pierpaolo
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of economic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1742-7363
pISSN - 1742-7355
DOI - 10.1111/ijet.12061
Subject(s) - secrecy , intellectual property , industrial organization , guard (computer science) , business , welfare , information asymmetry , property rights , economics , law and economics , microeconomics , computer science , computer security , market economy , programming language , operating system
This paper plugs informal intellectual property rights (IPR) and secrecy into a scale‐invariant Schumpeterian model of growth. In doing so, the paper envisages the existence of two‐stage research and development races in which firms initially introduce a new way to produce new quality products, and then try to refine it in order to make the innovation suitable for patent application. In the passage from the first stage to the second, research firms keep the discovery secret, but face a positive probability that some sensitive information can leak from the firm because of corporate intelligence. The model displays a unique steady state, which is then used to study the long‐run effects of strengthening secrecy protection. Stronger secrecy protection is found to be welfare‐improving and beneficial for innovation and growth, even in the case where research firms can prevent corporate‐intelligence firms from obtaining sensitive information through information‐protecting activities.