The effects of the U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act on wheat genetic improvement:

The U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) of 1970 was meant to strengthen intellectual property protection for plant breeders. A model of investment under partial excludability is developed, leading to the hypotheses that any increase in excludability or appropriability of the returns to invention, attributable to the PVPA, would lead to increases in investment or efficiency gains in varietal R&D, improved varietal quality, and enhanced royalties. These hypotheses are tested in an economic analysis of the effects of the PVPA on wheat genetic improvement. The PVPA appears to have contributed to increases in public expenditures on wheat variety improvement, but private-sector investment in wheat breeding does not appear to have increased. Moreover, econometric analyses indicate that the PVPA has not caused any increase in experimental or commercial wheat yields. However, the share of U.S. wheat acreage sown to private varieties has increased–from 3 percent in 1970 to 30 percent in the 1990s. These findings indicate that the PVPA has served primarily as a marketing tool with little impact on excludability or appropriability.Intellectual property., Plant breeding., Wheat., Economics.,

Personal Identity and Angelic Touch in Wim Wenders\u27 Wings of Desire

Wenders\u27 Wings of Desire offers a rich tapestry for theorists of personal identity and its relationship to the Other. Set in a Berlin where angels walk among humans, it depicts those angels reorienting humans\u27 lives with but a touch. Martin Heidegger and Gilles Deleuze also theorize the Other\u27s touch as central to any change in the self. Bringing Wenders\u27 film into dialogue with their theories offers new insights into the film\u27s central question, “Why am I me and not you?

The EU in Kosovo: Operational Dilemmas, Political Priorities and the Realities of Post-Conflict Assistance

The European Union was a major participant in post conflict reconstruction in Kosovo and continues to be the leading international actor. This article examines the effectiveness of the EU’s contribution to developing Kosovo’s government institutions and the implementation of its development assistance programs. The EU faced practical difficulties at the very start of its engagement which undermined its impact, and there are ongoing deficiencies in the EU’s approach to development assistance. There are also questions about the appropriateness of the EU’s strategy in Kosovo from the perspective of Kosovo’s economic development. It is argued that EU assistance activities, based on the accession process and compliance with ‘European standards,’ are excessively complex, are oriented more towards benefiting the EU and its members, and may not address the development problems of Kosovo, or agree with the priorities of Kosovo’s population