Crop Research Incentives in a Privatized Industry: A Stochastic Approach

We model today's privatized crop research industry as a small number of firms, developing and selling differentiated products to heterogeneous producers. Crop variety research is modeled as a search process, which allows us to differentiate between applied and basic research and recognize research as a stochastic process. We use the framework to develop a number of propositions regarding private research incentives, the spillovers of knowledge, and the impact of public policy. The results suggest an underinvestment in research even when property rights have been established.search process, stochastic process, biotechnology, IPRs, applied R&D, basic R&D, imperfect competition, differentiated products, heterogeneous producers., Agribusiness,

AN ANALYTICAL AND EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRIVATE BIOTECH R&D INCENTIVES

The study examines the incentives and incidence of private R&D investment in the today's biotech industry. A three-stage search/imperfect competition model is developed to derive the optimal pricing and investment decisions of private firms and to develop conjectures about how these decisions are affected by exogenous factors. The analysis shows that basic public research "crowds in" applied private research while applied public research "crowds out" applied private research. The current technology level and the cost of the experimentation negatively affect private investment, while the price of the final product positively affects the private investment. Moreover, the greater the product heterogeneity, the higher the price charged with the same amount of R&D. Finally, the increase in IPR's and the firm's market size has a positive effect on the private firm's amount of R&D investment. These conjectures are tested empirically using data from the Canola research industry. The results of the empirical analysis strongly support the results derived from the theoretical model.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The first geocenter estimation results using GPS measurements

The center of mass of the Earth is the natural and unambiguous origin of a geocentric satellite dynamical system. A geocentric reference frame assumes that the origin of its coordinate axes is at the geocenter, in which all relevant observations and results can be referred and in which geodynamic theories or models for the dynamic behavior of Earth can be formulated. In practice, however, a kinematically obtained terrestrial reference frame may assume an origin other than the geocenter. A fast and accurate method of determining origin offset from the geocenter is highly desirable. Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements, because of their abundance and broad distribution, provide a powerful tool to obtain this origin offset in a short period of time. Two effective strategies have been devised. Data from the first Central and South America (Casa Uno) global GPS experiment were studied to demonstrate the ability of recovering the geocenter location with present-day GPS satellites and receivers

Deriving a geocentric reference frame for satellite positioning and navigation

With the advent of Earth-orbiting geodetic satellites, nongeocentric datums or reference frames have become things of the past. Accurate geocentric three-dimensional positioning is now possible and is of great importance for various geodetic and oceanographic applications. While relative positioning accuracy of a few centimeters has become a reality using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), the uncertainty in the offset of the adopted coordinate system origin from the geocenter is still believed to be on the order of 1 meter. Satellite laser ranging (SLR), however, is capable of determining this offset to better than 10 cm, but this is possible only after years of measurements. Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements provide a powerful tool for an accurate determination of this origin offset. Two strategies are discussed. The first strategy utilizes the precise relative positions that were predetermined by VLBI to fix the frame orientation and the absolute scaling, while the offset from the geocenter is determined from GPS measurements. Three different cases are presented under this strategy. The reference frame thus adopted will be consistent with the VLBI coordinate system. The second strategy establishes a reference frame by holding only the longitude of one of the tracking sites fixed. The absolute scaling is determined by the adopted gravitational constant (GM) of the Earth; and the latitude is inferred from the time signature of the Earth rotation in the GPS measurements. The coordinate system thus defined will be a geocentric Earth-fixed coordinate system

Economic Impacts of Proposed Limits on Trans Fats in Canada

In response to growing concerns about coronary heart disease (CHD), the Government of Canada has recently taken policy measures to reduce Canadian trans fatty acid (TFA) consumption. The mandatory labelling of trans fat content in foods began in December 2005. The House of Commons also established a task force in November 2004 to develop a set of regulations to ban the sale of food products with a TFA content greater than 2 percent. The issue at stake is whether the mandatory content restriction has economic merit. While the mandatory TFA reductions could reduce heart disease and improve the health of Canadians, they also have the potential to increase economic costs faced by all aspects of the Canadian food oil complex, from primary producers to consumers. The goal of this article is to examine the impacts of a mandatory reduction of trans fat content by estimating the potential health benefits and potential adverse impacts on the agri-food sector.Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPILLOVERS WITHIN THE CANOLA BIOTECH INDUSTRY

The study uses firm-specific data in the biotech canola industry to empirically examine research spillovers among public and private firms at the level of research output, research sales revenue, and research social revenue. The non-pecuniary spillovers that are examined include basic research, human capital/ knowledge (as measured through other-firm expenditures) and genetics (as measured through yields of other-firms). The results provide strong empirical evidence of several research spillovers in the biotech crop research industry such as: basic and applied public research creates a positive spillover for private firms at all levels; applied expenditure within-group reduces other-firm revenue while between-group expenditure increases revenue; genetic spillovers within-group have a positive impact on yield but tend to have a negative impact on firm revenue.Agribusiness,

Pecuniary, Non-Pecuniary, and Downstream Research Spillovers: The Case of Canola

This paper develops an empirical framework for estimating a number of inter-firm and downstream research spillovers in the canola crop research industry. The spillovers include basic research, human capital/ knowledge (as measured through other-firm expenditures), and genetics (as measured through yields of other-firms). The model used to examine spillover effects on research productivity provides evidence that there are many positive inter-firm non-pecuniary research spillovers, which is consistent with a research clustering effect. The second model, which examines spillovers at the level of firm revenue , shows that, while private firms tend to crowd one another, public firm expenditure on basic and applied research creates a crowding-in effect for private firms. This model also shows that enhanced intellectual property rights have increased the revenues of private firms. The third model, which examines social value of each firm's output, provides evidence that downstream research spillovers remain important in this modern crop research industry.basic research, applied research, public research expenditures, private research expenditures, biotechnology, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, O3,

Economic value of water in agriculture: comparative analysis of a water-scarce and water-rich region in India

Water productivityEconomic evaluationCrop productionIrrigated farmingWater costsWellsLivestockMilk production

Application of GPS tracking techniques to orbit determination for TDRS

In this paper, we evaluate two fundamentally different approaches to TDRS orbit determination utilizing Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and GPS-related techniques. In the first, a GPS flight receiver is deployed on the TDRSS spacecraft. The TDRS ephemerides are determined using direct ranging to the GPS spacecraft, and no ground network is required. In the second approach, the TDRSS spacecraft broadcast a suitable beacon signal, permitting the simultaneous tracking of GPS and TDRSS satellites from a small ground network. Both strategies can be designed to meet future operational requirements for TDRS-2 orbit determination