This paper examines the maturation process of firms that enter an industry by constructing new plant and investigates the extent to which improvements in the performance of an entry cohort are the result of a selection process that culls out the most inefficient entrants or of a learning process that allows survivors to improve their performance relative to incumbent firms. Both selection and evolutionary learning are found to affect post-entry performance, but selection per se is a more important contributor to the overall growth of a cohort.

The extent to which Canadian manufacturing exports are sensitive to national differences in patent rights are examined. The conclusion is that, overall, Canadians tend to export more to those countries where their patent rights are highly safeguarded. Stronger patent protection induces Canadians to export relatively more to high-income countries than to low-income countries. In addition, the effect of stronger patent rights is to increase exports to those countries that pose a strong threat of imitation and to reduce exports to those countries that pose the weakest threat of imitation. JEL Classification: F13; O34 Impact de la propriété des brevets sur le commerce international : résultats pour le Canada. Ce mémoire examine jusqu'à quel point les exportations manufacturières canadiennes sont sensibles aux différences dans la propriété des brevets entre pays. L'étude conclut que les Canadiens tendent à exporter davantage vers les pays où la propriété des brevets est hautement protégée.Il appert que la plus forte protection de la propriété des brevets tend à faire que les Canadiens exportent relativement plus vers les pays à hauts revenus que vers ceux à plus faibles revenus. De plus, il appert que l'effet de la plus forte protection des brevets est d'accroître les exportations vers les pays qui posent une forte menace d'imitation et de réduire les exportations vers les pays qui posent la plus faible menace d'imitation.

This paper examines the maturation process of firms that enter an industry by constructing new plant and investigates the extent to which improvements in the performance of an entry cohort are the result of a selection process that culls out the most inefficient entrants or of a learning process that allows survivors to improve their performance relative to incumbent firms. Both selection and evolutionary learning are found to affect post-entry performance, but selection per se is a more important contributor to the overall growth of a cohort.

The Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series provides for the circulation, on a prepublication basis, of research conducted by Branch staff, visiting Fellows and academic associates. The Research Paper Series is intended to stimulate discussion on a variety of topics including labour, business firm dynamics, pensions, agriculture, mortality, language, immigration, statistical computing and simulation. Readers of the series are encouraged to contact the authors with comments, criticisms and suggestions. A list of titles appears inside the back cover of this paper.Papers in the series are distributed to Statistics Canada Regional Offices, provincial statistical focal points, research institutes, and specialty libraries. These papers can be downloaded from the internet at www.statcan.ca.

Papers in the series are distributed to Statistics Canada Regional Offices, provincial statistical focal points, research institutes, and specialty libraries. These papers can be downloaded from the internet at www.statcan.ca.