Notwithstanding the ambiguous research and productivity promoting effects of plant varietyprotections (PVPs), even in developed countries, many developing countries have adoptedPVPs in the past few years to comply with their Trade-Related Aspects of IntellectualProperty Rights (TRIPS)...

When a new technology consists of sequences of innovations that culminate in a finalconsumer product, the balance between successive innovators is one of the main concernsin the design of the patent system. While intertemporal aspects of incentive are critical inthis environment of sequential...

Notwithstanding the ambiguous research and productivity promoting effects of plant variety protections (PVPs), even in developed countries, many developing countries have adopted PVPs in the past few years to comply with their Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)...

Improvements in agricultural productivity have alleviated much poverty and starvation and fuelled economic progress. However, comparatively little agricultural R&D and "technology tailoring" has been done for the conditions confronting African agriculture. Innovation in African agriculture and...

Commissioned by the CGIAR Science Council and prepared as a Background Paper for the 2008 World Development Report of the World Bank.

Proponents tout the positive incentive-to-innovate effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs), while others maintain that the expanding subject matter and geographical extent of IPRs are stifling crop research, especially research and development (R&D) dealing with developing-country crop...

This paper contributes to the growing effort to synthesize the fields of trade policy and environmental policy. We discuss: the question of whether international trade undercuts unilateral internalization policies: the role of income constraints in environmental policy; and the possibility of...

The United States was the first country in the world to explicitly offer intellectual property protection for plant varieties. Beginning in 1930, asexually reproduced plants were afforded plant patent protection, in 1970 sexually propagated plants could be awarded plant variety protection...