In general, reported rates of return to agricultural R&D are high, but questions have been raised about upward biases in the evidence. Among the reasons for this bias, insufficient attention to attribution aspects-matching of research benefits and costs-is a pervasive problem, the magnitude of...

This study addresses several questions: (1) is a soybean yield limit being reached?, (2) what is the rate of return to soybean research, and is the research effect stable over time?, (3) are technology spill-overs between states important?, (4) do input and output price fluctuations affect...

Scientists were surveyed as part of as assessment of five emerging biotechnologies which are potentially applicable to commercial U.S. maize production by the year 2000. The largest gains expected by scientists were from plant growth regulators, followed by photosynthetic enhancement, cell or...

Prices of basic food staples and feed crops have soared in recent years, renewing concerns about the ability of global food supplies to meet the projected growth in aggregate demand. Notwithstanding these concerns, and apparently at odds with a vast body of economic evidence reporting...

Recent trends in farm productivity and food prices raise concerns about whether the era of global agricultural abundance is over. Agricultural R&D is a crucial determinant of agricultural productivity and production, and therefore food prices and poverty. In this paper we review past and present...

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...