Coordination of Trade and Intellectual Property Rights Policies

We employ a bilateral R&D spillover model to analyze how a domestic government coordinates its intellectual property rights (IPR) and trade policies and hence affects a foreign firm's choice between export (EX) and foreign direct investment (FDI). We find that both firms' profits increase with IPR protection if the IPR protection level in the domestic country is loose. The domestic country can coordinate trade and IPR policies and reach a high welfare level by affecting foreign firm's entry decisions. The profitability and desirability may decrease with the strength of IPR protection and correspond to a welfare-reducing R&D.