Geoff Reed’s research while affiliated with University of Nottingham and other places

This chapter examines the role of patent policy in the open economy. It begins by considering how the presence of patents affects trade in patentable products. A brief review of the general argument for patent protection is followed by consideration of the elements that comprise a patent system, and which determine "patent strength." Attention is then given to howthe existence of the global market influences countries' choices of patent system. It is noted that the way patents are applied tends to push countries toward extreme choices, which may partly explain the pressure for some degree of international harmonization that led to the minimum standards specified in the TRIPS Agreement. But even with these minimum standards, countries retain discretion over important aspects of their patent systems.

This paper formally investigates how industrial linkages between Japanese firms in Thailand affect the inter-industry pattern of FDI. It does so in the context of a model of FDI where production is vertically integrated between the home and host economies, using a distinctive industry data set constructed from firm-level information. The econometric evidence indicates that, in addition to the factors that facilitate vertical integration (lower transport costs, lower labour cost, etc.), the opportunity to create industrial linkages or supply networks leads to additional clustering or agglomeration of FDI. J. Japanese Int. Economies20 (2) (2006) 193–208.

This paper focuses on the macro-economic impacts of changes in health provision via its effects on the labour market. The resource allocation issues have been explored in theory, by further developing the Rybczynski theorem and empirically, using a Computable General Equilibrium model for the UK. From the theory, changes in non-health outputs are shown to depend on so-called factor-bias and scale effects. Using the CGE model with added real-life complexities, a rise in the NHS budget is shown to yield overall welfare gains, which fall by two-third assuming health-specific factors. A nominally equivalent migration policy yields even higher welfare gains.

We test the vertical model of foreign direct investment (FDI) empirically using firm level information on Japanese multinational activity in Thailand. These data allow us to investigate the effects of both home country (Japan) and host country (Thailand) characteristics on the inter-industry pattern of FDI. For 85 manufacturing industries over the period from 1985 to 1995, we find a positive influence of industry variation in skill intensity and market size in the host country and a negative effect of transport costs on the amount of FDI. These results provide strong direct econometric evidence of vertical integration of production across the countries. Journal of Comparative Economics32 (4) (2004) 805–821.

The phenomenon of rising wage inequality has been extensively documented in OECD countries. In the final quarter of the last century it appears to have been particularly marked in the US and UK. The drivers of rising inequality have been subject to econometric analysis and the relative roles of trade and skill-biased technical change evaluated. In this paper, we take an alternative approach, namely computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling. The contribution of the paper is twofold: first, it constructs the first purpose built model of the UK economy specifically geared to evaluating the drivers of rising wage inequality; second, it incorporates new and more disaggregated measures of labour types. The model's output identifies clearly the role of trade in the process over the period 1980 to 1998.

This paper examines the role of patent policy in the open economy. It begins by considering how the presence of patents affects trade in patentable products. A brief review of the general argument for patent protection is followed by consideration of the elements that comprise a patent system, and which determine "patent strength". Attention is then given to how the existence of the global market influences countries' choices of patent system. It is noted that the way patents are applied tends to push countries towards extreme choices, which may partly explain the pressure for some degree of international harmonisation that led to the minimum standards specified in the TRIPs Agreement. But even with these minimum standards, countries retain discretion over important aspects of their patent systems.

This article examines the role of rules of origin as a commercial policy instrument that targets the input composition of imports. Using a three-country, partial equilibrium structure, we demonstrate conditions under which the imposition of a binding rule will be welfare improving for an importer facing competitive export suppliers. We further show that employing rules of origin in this way would be complementary to, rather than a substitute for, conventional optimal tariffs. Copyright Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association

This paper considers the links between trade liberalization and technology choice in the nonliberalizing country. Trade-liberalization-induced changes in relative product prices have direct effects on equilibrium relative factor returns. The consequent changes in relative input costs may also lead producers to switch to alternative technologies, which will in turn induce a further indirect change in relative factor returns. Will this indirect affect exacerbate or ameliorate the direct effect on relative factor returns? It is found that this depends on the relative cost savings across sectors and factor cost shares. Copyright 2000 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Economic Effects of Rules of Origin. — Rules of origin exist because governments wish to discriminate amongst products on the basis of their “country of origin”. Since the components and activities that make up the total value added of many products are not created in a single location, rules to define a unique geographical source for products must be somewhat arbitrary, and inevitably introduce distortions into production and trade patterns as producers seek to provide their products with the most favourable origin. This paper considers the structure of such rules and their economic consequences.