Intellectual Property Rights and Export Sophistication

Developing economies are aiming to upgrade the sophistication of their exports. Previous studies have explored the drivers of export sophistication. However, the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection has attracted little attention. This paper studies how IPR protection affects export sophistication. The empirical results show that in developing countries, foreign direct investment (FDI) and imports play a mediating role in the relationship between IPR protection and export sophistication; while for developed countries, the corresponding mediating effects rely on research and development (R&D) and FDI. In addition, when making a more accurate classification of developing countries' imports and inward FDI origin, we find that the mediating effect depends on South-South imports and North-South FDI.