Introduction to Intellectual Property, Innovation and Economic Inequality

Abstract

While growing disparities in wealth and income are well-documented across the globe, the role of intellectual property rights is often overlooked. Intellectual Property, Innovation and Economic Inequality brings together leading commentators from around the world to interrogate the interrelationship between intellectual property and economic inequality. Interdisciplinary and globally oriented by design, the book features economists, legal scholars, policy analysts, and other experts. Chapters address the impact of intellectual property rights on economic inequality, the effect of economic inequality on the protection and enforcement of these rights, and the potential use of innovation law and policy to help reduce economic inequality. The volume also tackles timely issues like race and gender disparities and the North-South divide in innovation.

This chapter provides an introduction to the book. It begins by discussing the problem of economic inequality, including the scale of that problem, types of economic inequality, and extant research on such inequality. The chapter then outlines the structure of this volume, which is divided into three parts: (1) theoretical, empirical, and policy issues; (2) intellectual property and national inequality; and (3) intellectual property and global inequality.