The Productivity Effects of Extension Appointments in Land Grant Colleges

A key piece in understanding the link between the extension and research missions of Land Grant universities is to understand the role of faculty with (and without) extension appointments within agricultural colleges. This article provides a comparative empirical portrayal of the primary activities of agricultural college faculty, and demonstrates the basic vitality of extension professors within the Land Grant system. Professors with smaller extension appointments are heavily engaged in the major research efforts of their universities at even greater levels of production than professors without extension responsibilities. Professors with heavy levels of extension appointments experience increasing tradeoffs between core extension activities and research outputs and graduate training. Professors with no extension appointments engage substantively in extension activities and frequently have links to core extension clientele.

A Trait Specific Model of GM Crop Adoption among U.S. Corn Farmers in the Upper Midwest

This work offers a new approach to the adoption of GM crop varieties by adopting the econometric methodology of the characteristics-based demand literature. A random utility framework was implemented through different specifications of a conditional (CL) and a mixed multinomial logit (MMNL) model of crop-variety choice. Willingness-to-pay and price elasticity estimates for traits were calculated. The MMNL approach demonstrates that individuals' tastes for some traits significantly vary across the population. Results further suggest that labor saving technologies have a much wider potential to be adopted. Overall, the use of a trait-based model to examine the adoption patterns of GM crop varieties among corn farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin reveals a new set of results and lessons that classic adoption models cannot provide.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A Dynamic Count Data Analysis of University Ag-Biotech Patents

This paper examines the factors that account for ag-biotech patenting success among universities using a dynamic count data model. It builds a theoretical and econometric model to capture the inherently dynamic and nonlinear process of technological innovation, wherein a feedback mechanism from previous success partially determines current patent counts. The econometric estimates reveal the importance to ag-biotech patent production of land grant infrastructure, quality faculty, state and institutional funding, patent-oriented technology transfer offices, as well as dynamic feedback effects.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

ARE THERE SYNERGIES OR TRADEOFFS BETWEEN ARTICLES AND PATENTS IN UNIVERSITY AG-BIOTECH RESEARCH

This paper examines the empirical evidence for synergies or tradeoffs associated with the rapid rise of ag-biotech patenting at Land Grant Universities by examining the question of whether journal articles and patents appear to be complementary or competing activities in agricultural biotechnology research. The results show many synergies and none of the expected tradeoffs between the basic research represented in journal articles and the commercial proprietary research represented in patents.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Trends in University Ag-Biotech Patent Production

This work exploits information on U.S. patents to identify trends in university ag-biotech patenting and citation performance. It sets forth some key issues concerning patterns of university ag-biotech patenting and then provides an empirical analysis on the evolving trends. Land Grant Universities account for most U.S. agbiotech patents. The data show a path dependent innovation pattern, in which there also seems to be a culture of patenting that develops at certain universities. Evidence shows that ag-biotech patents are more cited than the average university patent. Inequalities across Land Grant Universities are also evident in the production of agbiotech patents, although perhaps not to a much greater degree than underlying inequalities in funding and research qualities. The paper closes by considering how the evidence offered might be used to advance the public discussion regarding trends in agricultural biotechnology research in the U.S.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

TRENDS IN UNIVERSITY AG-BIOTECH PATENT PRODUCTION

This work exploits information on U.S. patents to identify trends in university ag-biotech patenting and citation performance. It sets forth some key issues concerning patterns of university ag-biotech patenting and then provides an empirical analysis on the evolving trends. Land Grant Universities account for most U.S. ag-biotech patents. The data show a path dependent innovation pattern, in which there also seems to be a culture of patenting that develops at certain universities. Evidence shows that ag-biotech patents are more cited than the average university patent. Inequalities across Land Grant Universities are also evident in the production of ag-biotech patents, although perhaps not to a much greater degree than underlying inequalities in funding and research qualities. The paper closes by considering how the evidence offered might be used to advance the public discussion regarding trends in agricultural biotechnology research in the U.S.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Research and Development at U.S. Research Universities: An Analysis of Scope Economies

This work investigates the presence and sources of economies of scope in R&D at U.S. research universities. The analysis evaluates the tradeoffs and synergies arising between traditional university research outputs (articles and doctorates) and academic patents. We propose a new measure of economies of scope based on a primal representation of the underlying technology. We derive a decomposition of economies of scope which identifies its sources (e.g., complementarity effects and scale effects). Non-parametric estimates of scope economies using R&D input and output data from 92 research universities show significant economies of scope between articles and patents, but modest complementarities.

Sequential Adoption of Package Technologies: The Dynamics of Stacked Trait Corn Adoption

GM corn seed companies have innovated continuously with the introduction of new traits and, more recently, with the creation of stacked varieties, which combine more than one trait. This work develops a Bayesian model of adoption dynamics that demonstrates how uncertainty with a package technology with known risk can lead to a sequential adoption pattern in which farmers adopt a single component first. We then develop a semiparametric panel data model of adoption dynamics to measure the effects of experience with single trait (non-stacked) varieties on the adoption of stacked varieties. The results underscore the importance of early experience with the non-stacked technology in the subsequent adoption of stacked varieties, i.e., a sequential adoption process. There is also evidence that farmers with more human capital tend to learn faster from own experience and that as the GM corn-technology diffusion process deepens, the importance of early experience decreases.Crop Production/Industries,

Efficiency and Technological Change at U.S. Research Universities

This paper investigates the determinants of efficiency and technological progress at US research universities. It relies on a unique panel data set of multiple outputs and inputs from 92 universities covering the period 1981-1998. Over that time span, US universities experienced large increases in industry funding and in academic patenting activity. In this context, the directional distance function and a nonparametric representation of the underlying production technology are combined to obtain estimates of productivity growth and technical efficiency. A pooled-Tobit estimator is used to examine the determinants of technical efficiency and the rate of technological progress. The results show how changes in funding sources for U.S. research universities affects research performance.

The State Contingent Approach to Farmers' Valuation and Adoption of New Biotech Crops: Nitrogen-Fertilizer Saving and Drought Tolerance Traits

We used a state contingent approach to give a detailed analysis of the uncertainty surrounding seed trait adoption. Our framework emphasizes the role of timing and information in farmers’ adoption decisions. The inherent embeddedness of seed traits results in timing restrictions and the inability of post-planting adjustments, this in turn results in farmers necessarily engaging in a game with nature. Two main types of traits we identify are supplementing traits and stabilizing traits – classification into each category is directly related on the mobility of the production factor the trait intends to substitute. Supplementing traits allow for acting after nature (i.e., ex post) while stabilizing traits are better modeled as acting before nature (i.e., ex ante). The type of trait results in different determinants of the farmers’ WTP function.State Contingent, Genetically Modified, Biotech, Contingent Valuation, Nitrogen Absorption Efficiency, Drought Tolerance, Uncertainty, Seed Trait, Technological Adoption, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,