Simplice Asongu
Software piracy, inequality and the poor: evidence from Africa
African Governance and Development Institute
purpose poverty inequality undoubtedly remain substantial challenges economic human developments amid growing emphasis intellectual property rights iprs recent advances information communication technology icts good governance first empirical study incidence piracy inequality africa purpose paper examine plethora factors iprs laws education icts government quality instrumental piracyinequality nexus designmethodologyapproach twostage least squares estimation approaches applied piracy instrumented iprs regimes treaties education icts government quality dynamics findings main finding suggests software piracy good poor positive incomeredistributive effect consistent economic cultural considerations recent literature icts education dissemination knowledge instrumental positive redistributive effect good governance mitigates inequality beyond piracy channel practical implications policy implication adoption iprs sampled countries take account role less stringent iprs regimes play incomeredistribution software piracy collateral benefits include among others cheap dissemination knowledge icts african countries badly need quest become knowledge economies caveat however much piracy may decrease incentives innovate hence need adopt tighter iprs regimes tandem increasing incomeequality originalityvalue first empirical assessment incidence piracy inequality africa continent stubbornly high poverty inequality rates