The welfare effects of GM (genetic modification)-led productivity growth for cassava producers are partly affected by the characteristics of individual cassava producing households. Those household characteristics include the elasticity of production and home consumption of cassava. Some studies...

Effective socio-economic service delivery is vital for alleviating poverty in developing countries.Increased financial support without complementary investment in service delivery mechanisms oftenresults in little or no impact. This paper contributes to the discussion on how to maximize the...

This paper examines the effect of foreign intellectual property right (IPR) systems and the policies that comprise them on U.S. exports of biotechnology related agricultural input industries. Policy components include the extent of patent coverage across industry sectors, enforcement mechanisms,...

The paper considers the econometric modeling of technology adoption when crop choice is simultaneous. Bivariate probit is used to estimate a model of irrigation technology choice and land allocation using a unique field-level data set from California's Central Valley. Special attention is paid...

The central objective of the present paper is to examine how university bioscientists select their research agendas, with special attention to biotechnology firms' influence on those agendas. Among other issues, we will assess UIRs' potential effects on the private appropriability of the...

Uncertainty of returns from marketing is an extremely important factor affecting the diffusion of a wide range of genetically modified (GM) crops worldwide. Biotech companies face complicated choices in making decisions about whether to enter agricultural markets in different countries with...

The EPA has imposed mandatory refuge requirements for Bt crops to prolong the efficacy of Bt. Growers have no economic incentive to plant the required refuge because refuge crops are on average less productive and more risky. This paper evaluates refuge insurance--insurance that pays indemnities...

The purpose of the paper is to theoretically examine the welfare implications of public sector involvement in agricultural biotechnology R&D. The model assumes that firms (either a private duopoly consisting of a pair of for-profit firms or a mixed duopoly consisting of one for-profit firm and...

The protection of intellectual property rights has been a contentious issue over the last 20 years. Industrialized nations have moved to knowledge-based economies and simultaneously trade barriers have fallen, making intellectual property vulnerable. Adding to this vulnerability are conflicting...

The introduction of intellectual property rights (IPRs) is one of the most notable features of agricultural biotechnology. So are growing concerns about the widespread violation of IPRs in developing countries. This paper develops a model of heterogeneous producers to examine the economic causes...