The multilateral and regional regulation of knowledge
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Transcript The multilateral and regional regulation of knowledge
The international governance of
knowledge policies: a survey
Joint work of the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture
(University of Oslo) and of the Research Centre for International
Economics (University of Rome “Sapienza”)
Edited by
Helge Hveem (University of Oslo)
P. Lelio Iapadre (University of L’Aquila, Johns Hopkins University –
Bologna Center, and UNU-CRIS, Bruges)
Presentation for the 4th GARNET Annual Conference
Rome, 12 November 2009
Motivation and objectives
Market and non-market channels of knowledge
creation and diffusion are influenced by regulatory
institutions at the national and international –
bilateral, regional or multilateral - level.
The survey aims at
identifying the main international institutional
structures that regulate the flows of domestic
knowledge accumulation and its diffusion among
countries,
providing a description of their characteristics, their
similarities and their contrasts,
assessing the functionality of the multi-level
international governance of knowledge policies.
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduction
Conceptual overview
a.
b.
The international governance of knowledge activities (Helge Hveem)
Knowledge accumulation and international knowledge transfers (Luca
Spinesi)
Knowledge accumulation processes
a.
b.
c.
Education (Carl Henrik Knutsen)
Research (Carl Henrik Knutsen)
Innovation (Cristina Castelli)
a.
b.
Open flow of ideas (Carl Henrik Knutsen)
Co-operation on knowledge activities (Helge Hveem and Carl Henrik
Knutsen)
Migration (Cristina Castelli and Lelio Iapadre)
Foreign direct investment (Luca de Benedictis and Luca Spinesi)
Trade in goods and services (Cristina Castelli)
International knowledge diffusion processes
c.
d.
e.
Outline of survey chapters
Concepts and definitions
Overview of relevant national policies
International institutions
bilateral
regional
multilateral
Governance of the system: the
interplay between different
jurisdictional levels
Conclusions.
Education
Focus on higher education
International integration in higher education
Mobility of students and teachers
Foreign affiliates of universities and provision of on-line
courses
Regulatory convergence promoted by international
institutions
Diffusion of best practices (peer review and country
rankings)
International standards on quality assurance and
accreditation systems
Improving national systems
Facilitating international mobility of students and workers
Possible enforcement problems
Education
Perceived trade-off between national
policies and international integration
National policies
Education, growth, and societal progress
Protecting cultural identities
Attracting foreign students and hindering “brain
drain”
International integration policies
Bilateral or regional preferential agreements
Non-discriminatory trade and FDI liberalisation in
the WTO context
Other multilateral cooperation initiatives, such as
the OECD-UNESCO Guidelines for Quality
Provision in Cross-border Higher Education
Education
International governance: the
prospects
Increasing international integration
Problems of WTO negotiations
The role of regional integration
The Bologna process model
An alternative to WTO integration?
Competition among different regional systems
Facilitation of multilateral negotiations
Research
International cooperation in the
global research community
The role of international institutions
in producing comparable data and
analysis
Statistics as a global public good
Statistics, knowledge and policies: the
Global Project on Measuring the
Progress of Societies
Research
The role of intellectual property protection
Intellectual property protection is more relevant
for business innovation than for basic research,
which relies on free access to existing
knowledge
The distinction between research and innovation
is blurred
National and international institutions protecting
intellectual property can affect basic research
A possible trade-off between public expenditure
and intellectual property protection in the
finance of research
Research
International governance: the prospects
Multilateral coordination of intellectual property
policies could be beneficial, provided that
national differences are duly taken into account
Spontaneous cooperation among national and
regional authorities is already occurring
Regional integration can help, provided that
regional organisations succeed in coordinating
their own members
National regulatory approaches remain different
(e.g.: patents on basic research)
Innovation
National policies
Subsidies and other measures aimed at
supporting business investment in
innovation
Regulations shaping the context in which
firms undertake innovation: the intellectual
property regime
The role of international institutions
Constraining the competition among
national support measures
Facilitating regulatory cooperation
Innovation
A stronger international regime of intellectual
property?
Expected benefits
Promoting investment in innovative activities
Creating a market for knowledge transfers
Keeping pace with the increasingly global scope of
business activities
Expected costs
Excessive monopoly power granted to protected firms
Increased costs of sequential innovation in new
technology fields
Distributive problems within and across countries
Innovation
Differences in national policies
Range and intensity of subsidies and support
measures
Choice of intellectual property protection tools
Patents vs. trade secrets
Copyrights or plant breeders’ rights vs. patents
Substantive requirements for patents
(patentable subject matter, novelty, inventive
step, industrial applicability)
Procedural aspects (term for disclosing
information; criteria to establish who is the first
to invent)
Innovation
Regional integration
The EU model
Harmonisation of procedural and
substantive aspects of national regulations
Regional offices administering a bundle of
national rights
Multilateral integration
Limitations to trade-distorting subsidies to
innovation
Harmonization of intellectual property
protection (TRIPs)
Innovation
International governance: the prospects
The national “policy space” left by multilateral
institutions is being eroded by bilateral
agreements
Multilateral harmonisation of procedures can
favour market integration by reducing
transaction costs
Harmonisation of substantive rules could lead to
neglect differences in development needs
Regional integration among countries at similar
levels of development could be a better option
The surveillance role of multilateral institutions
(WIPO and WTO) remains fundamental
Open flow of ideas
Knowledge as a public good
Barriers to the free circulation of
knowledge across countries are
stronger than domestically
International institutions can help
reducing these barriers
Crucial role of the communication
system
Open flow of ideas
International governance: the prospects
Bilateral and regional cooperation is well
developed
The multilateral level is the most
appropriate to agree and implement
communication standards
Facilitate ex-ante cooperation among national
authorities, preventing the risk that
incompatible standards are involuntarily chosen
Allow mutually beneficial negotiations when
national preferences about standards differ,
preventing the risk that network externalities
lead to the adoption of inefficient solutions
International cooperation in
knowledge activities
Cooperation among research and
innovation agents generates beneficial
externalities and favours incremental
innovation
Local innovation systems are based on
spatial proximity among their actors,
but develop intense international
linkages
Focus on knowledge transfers between
research centres and firms
International cooperation in
knowledge activities
International governance: the prospects
National and international institutions can
favour cooperation among knowledge
producers
Checking the abuse of dominant positions in
knowledge cooperation networks
The subsidiarity principle suggests the
priority of bilateral and regional institutions
In future, the optimal allocation of
competences could change in favour of the
multilateral level, as a response to the
increasingly global scope of knowledge
cooperation networks
Migration
International mobility of people as
a channel of knowledge diffusion
“Brain drain” vs. “Brain gain”
A fragmented system of
uncoordinated national policies
Weak international institutions
Migration
International governance: the
prospects
National policies face increasing
problems in controlling migration flows
Progress at the multilateral level is
unlikely
Bilateral and regional institutions can be
used to experiment forms of deeper
integration
Foreign Direct Investment
FDI is widely considered as an important
channel of knowledge diffusion
Its effects depend also on the absorption
capacity of host economies
Competition regime
Quality of local skills
With the partial exception of the GATS, the
multilateral regime of FDI is very weak
Home countries fear losses in employment
Host countries fear constraints in national
industrial policies
Foreign Direct Investment
International governance: the prospects
Notwithstanding the political rhetoric against
foreign multinationals, countries compete in
attracting FDI
Proliferation of bilateral investment treaties:
investor protection in exchange for capital
inflows, without multilateral constraints
Fragmentation of the international regime
and discrimination across countries
In future, the GATS model could be
extended to other sectors
Trade in goods and services
Trade can be a channel of knowledge
diffusion
Reverse engineering on imported goods
Producer-consumer interaction in services
trade
International production networks
Relevant national policies
Export promotion
Import liberalisation, unilateral or in the
context of integration agreements
Trade in goods and services
International governance: the prospects
Preferential trade agreements can lead to a
fragmentation of the trading system
But sometimes represent useful experiments of
deeper integration
Rules of origin
Trade-related investment measures
Technical standards
E-commerce
Services
Their compatibility with the multilateral regime
remains an important unresolved issue
Some concluding questions
The case for an international regulation
of knowledge-related activities
Can knowledge be considered as a global public
good?
The case for international co-operation in
knowledge policies
Spill-overs: the external dimension of national
knowledge policies
Removing cultural barriers to international economic
integration
International integration, knowledge diffusion, and
societal progress
Possible counter-arguments: applying the
subsidiarity principle to knowledge policies
Some concluding questions
The role of regional and
multilateral institutions
The geographic scope of international cooperation in knowledge activities
Is regional co-operation more effective
than multilateral co-operation in
promoting knowledge creation and
diffusion?
Can regional integration hinder the
global governance of knowledge
activities?
Some concluding questions
Improving the trade-off between
knowledge creation and diffusion at
the international level
If flexibility is required in knowledge
policies, is this true both ways?
poor countries could be allowed to adopt
standards which are appropriate to their
development needs
rich countries could be allowed to experiment
forms of deeper integration
Are open plurilateral agreements, e.g. on
FDI, better than a network of hegemonic
bilateral agreements?