|
on Agricultural Economics |
|
Issue of 2007‒05‒04
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Lence, Sergio H.; Hayes, Dermot J. |
| Abstract: | The welfare implications of intellectual property protection (IPP) for private sector agricultural research are analyzed, focusing on the realistic cases in which countries provide different IPP levels, technology spills over across countries, and the public sector is involved in research. A model is developed to determine who benefits from, and who should pay for, the associated research. The paper contains some interesting results on the implications of a harmonization of IPP policies through multilateral agreements or via technology that allows research firms to prevent the copying of plants and animals that express traits that have emerged from their research. |
| Keywords: | biotechnology, GURTs, intellectual property, research spillover, welfare analysis. |
| Date: | 2007–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12801&r=agr |
| By: | Herrendorf, Berthold; Valentinyi, Akos |
| Abstract: | Many applications in economics use multi-sector versions of the growth model with Cobb--Douglas production functions at the sector level. In this paper, we measure the U.S. income shares of capital and labour for five sectors that encompass the typical sectors used in the literature. We also split the capital shares of these five sectors into the sector income shares of land and of structures and equipment. We find that the factor income shares differ widely across sectors. For example the capital share in agriculture is about twice that in construction. Moreover, the land shares in agriculture and in services are sizeable whereas the land shares in all other sectors are small. Our findings suggest that the general practice of using the economy-wide factor income shares also at the sector level is not a good practice. |
| Keywords: | industry-by-commodity total requirement matrix; input-output tables; sector factor shares |
| JEL: | O41 O47 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6271&r=agr |
| By: | Katleen Van den Broeck (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Stefan Dercon (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses whether agricultural information flows give rise to social learning effects in banana cultivation in Nyakatoke, a small Tanzanian village. Based on a village census, full information is available on socio-economic characteristics and banana production of farmer kinship members, neighbours and informal insurance group members. This allows a test for social learning within these groups and the identification of different types of social effects. Controlling for exogenous group characteristics, the effect of group behaviour on individual farmer output is studied. The results show that social effects are strongly dependent on the definition of the reference group. It emerges that no social effects are found in distance based groups, exogenous social effects linked to group education exist in informal insurance groups, and only kinship related groups generate the endogenous social effects that produce positive externalities in banana output. |
| Keywords: | social interactions; social learning; agricultural information networks |
| JEL: | O12 O13 O55 Q12 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuiedp:0708&r=agr |