The paper examines possible reasons behind expanded outsourcing by modeling outsourcing decisions when intellectual property rights are imperfectly protected. Firms in the North develop higher quality levels of existing products and then decide whether to shift some stages of production to the...

This paper develops a product cycle model with endogenous and costly innovation, imitation, and foreign direct investment (FDI) to address the concerns of developing nations that stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) protection would force them to waste scarce resources 'reinventing the...