JAMES WATT AS INTELLECTUAL MONOPOLIST: COMMENT ON BOLDRIN AND LEVINE*
指出博尔德林和莱文以瓦特蒸汽机专利为例论证知识产权损害社会福利的说法，基于对历史记录的歪曲，并反驳其理论。
In their 2003 Lawrence R. Klein Lecture, Michele Boldrin and David Levine argue that intellectual property rights may be damaging to social welfare. As empirical evidence for their theory they offer James Watt's steam engine patent, claiming that it delayed the Industrial Revolution by as much as two decades. We show that this claim, as well as the more general claim that Watt's story supports Boldrin and Levine's theory, rests upon a distorted summary of the historical record.