This paper examines the economic determinants and impacts of agricultural research, particularly biotechnology research, with a view to understanding the potential of agricultural biotechnology to address the needs of the poor in developing countries. It surveys public and private agricultural...

The ag-biotech industry underwent considerable consolidation in the last decade in part to take advantage of economics of scale and scope. The paper investigates the impact of such consolidation on inventive activity at the firm level. Careful attention is paid to the role of firm size,...

The objective of this paper is to make a contribution to a debated issue in industrial organization that of the relationship between market structure and innovation. We place this topic within a theoretical framework and in the context of the agricultural biotechnology research market. Our...

This paper examines the role of patents in the development and use of two platform technologies for plant biotechnology - plant transformation techniques and structural genomics. We find that patents were important in inducing private firms to develop these platform technologies. There...

The application of modern biotechnology to plant breeding is considered to be more efficient and quicker than conventional breeding techniques in the development of new and more resilient crop varieties. To test the impact that biotechnology is having on a industrial plant breeding activities,...

Over the past fifteen years, the agricultural biotechnology industry has exhibited cyclical behavior in concentration and consolidation. This paper provides a theoretical model of endogenous R&D, in which industry concentration exhibits cyclical behavior. The model also generates additional...

The emergence of agricultural biotechnology and policy responses to is altering global agricultural trade patterns. This paper models the effects of restrictive policies concerning the production and consumption of genetically modified agricultural products. The model relies on a...

Several characteristics of biotech industry structure follow cyclical patterns. Mergers and acquisitions activity shows cyclical behavior, with peaks from 1988-92 and 1996-97 and a valley from 1993-95. The ratio of large-firm to small-firm field trials, and the Herfindahl-Hirshmann concentration...

The study provides the welfare implications of IPRs for the rice growers, and private innovators developing and introducing non-transgenic herbicide tolerant (HT) rice in southern Brazil. The results revealed that under strict IPR enforcement, both producers and innovators would realize larger...