Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protect firms from imitation and are considered crucial to promoting innovation and technological diffusion. This paper examines the impact of IPR on import-sourcing decisions of multinational firms. We consider a framework in which firms offshore production of an intermediate good to another country. Firms can decide either to import the intermediate good from vertically integrated producers, or from independent suppliers. In both cases, offshoring part of the production process embodies a risk of imitation. The model predicts that, under reasonable parameter restrictions, stronger IPR disproportionately encourages the imports of intermediate goods through vertical integration. Using the US Related-Party Trade database, we find empirical evidence supportive of the positive link between level of IPR and the share of imports from vertically integrated manufacturers.

知识产权（IPR）保护公司免受模仿，并被认为对促进创新和技术传播至关重要。本文研究了知识产权对跨国公司进口采购决策的影响。我们考虑了一个框架，在该框架中，公司将中间产品的生产离岸到另一个国家。企业可以决定从垂直整合的生产商还是从独立的供应商那里进口中间商品。在这两种情况下，生产过程的离岸部分都存在被模仿的风险。该模型预测，在合理的参数限制下，较强的知识产权会不成比例地鼓励通过垂直整合来进口中间产品。使用美国关联方贸易数据库，