We review intellectual property rights in agriculture and outline a modeling framework that accounts for relevant institutional features of agricultural R&D. The analysis emphasizes vertical market linkages whereby agricultural innovations adopted by farmers are produced upstream by input...

A partial equilibrium four-region world trade model for the soybean complex is developed in which Roundup Ready (RR) products are weakly inferior substitutes to conventional ones, RR seeds are priced at a premium, and costly segregation is necessary to separate conventional and biotech products....

We relate the labeling of genetically modified (GM) products to the theory of grading and minimum quality standards. The model represents three stages in the supply chain, assumes a vertical product differentiation framework, allows for the accidental commingling of non-GM products, and treats...

An open-economy equilibrium model is derived to investigate the effects of energy policy on the U.S. economy, with emphasis on corn-based ethanol. A second best policy of a fuel tax and ethanol subsidy is found to approximate fairly closely the welfare gains associated with the first best policy...

The quest for biorenewable energy sources is held to justify a number of government interventions, including support policies for biofuels such as those responsible for the recent rapid growth of US ethanol production. This article provides an analytical assessment of such policies. We construct...

This paper studies the firm-level relationship between decision to export and environmental performance. To guide the empirical work, we introduce environmental pollution and technology choice into a trade model with heterogeneous firms. The model predicts that a productive firm is more likely...

This paper provides an overview of the economics of biofuels. It starts by describing the remarkable growth of the biofuel industry over the last decade, with emphasis on developments in the United States, Brazil and the European Union, and it identifies the driving role played by some critical...

A three-region world model for the soybean complex is developed to evaluate the welfare effects of Roundup Ready (RR) soybean adoption. The structural modeling of the innovation accounts for farmers' adoption incentives and for the observed pricing of RR soybean seeds as a proprietary...

This paper analyzes the optimal production and hedging decisions for firms facing futures price, basis, and production risk, assuming futures and options can be used. Using constant absolute risk aversion utility and normal distributions, the authors derive an exact solution and show that joint...