in the past and before granting the inventors and owners of intellectual property rights special exclusive rights and privileges under the patent laws, the protection of intellectual property rights was possible only through a legal regime which could help to keep the know how and innovation secret. this regime, in which contractual terms are often used to keep the innovation secret, is called ...

We empirically examine the impact of oil wealth on property rights protection for a sample 156 countries between 1960 and 2014. find that higher levels result in weaker private rights. This is robust to different instrumental-variable approaches operationalizations economic institutions. argue creates an elite wields disproportionate political power over society. The uses this buy support weak ...