Innovation is the source of product differentiation and is protected by intellectual property rights such as patents and trade secrets. This innovation is a target of theft. Naturally, theft decreases incentives for innovation, which harm consumer utility. This paper addresses the link between innovation, theft and market structure. By expanding a simple monopolistic competition model to include innovation and theft, this paper derives the theoretical conclusion that theft of innovation leads to dominance by larger firms in a more concentrated market with ambiguous effects on innovation. Using panel fixed effects models and data from the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index, the conclusion about market structure is supported along with the intuitive result that theft decreases innovation. Thus, mitigating theft is important, not only for encouraging innovation, but for preserving a competitive market.

中文翻译：

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创新、盗窃和市场结构

创新是产品差异化的源泉，受到专利、商业秘密等知识产权的保护。这种创新是盗窃的目标。自然，盗窃会降低创新的动力，从而损害消费者的效用。本文讨论了创新、盗窃和市场结构之间的联系。通过扩展一个简单的垄断竞争模型，将创新和盗窃包括在内，本文得出的理论结论是，盗窃创新导致大公司在更集中的市场中占据主导地位，对创新的影响不明确。使用面板固定效应模型和世界经济论坛全球竞争力指数的数据，支持市场结构的结论以及盗窃会降低创新的直观结果。因此，减少盗窃很重要，