Abstract: Theoretically, strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights(IPRs) in importing regions will promote the import of new products, but the influence direction on the quality of imported products is uncertain. The quality of new products may be higher or lower than the quality of imported products before IPRs protection. The analysis results based on the Chinese enterprise micro-data show that increasing IPRs protection in China's importing regions will encourage foreign enterprises to start exporting a wider range of product varieties, and incentivize Chinese enterprises to import these new varieties; however, the quality of these is lower than that of the commonly imported varieties, thereby reducing the average level of imported product quality. The effects of increased IPRs protection on the quality of imported medium-tech products are significant, while they are unobservable on high-tech and low-tech products. In addition, with increased IPRs protection, mid-quality varieties' import of medium-tech products rises significantly.
