Valuing Intellectual Property Rights in an Imperfectly Competitive Market: A Biopharming Application

Small research firms developing biotechnology applications often focus on establishing intellectual property rights (IPRs), which can then be sold to more established firms with existing market channels. This paper presents a method for valuing the IPRs for an innovation that lowers product production costs below those associated with the patented process of a monopolist. The application to Glucocerebrosidase enzyme from transgenic tobacco suggests an IPRs value of about $1.75 billion. Despite the innovator’s market power, significant surplus gains also accrue to consumers. Further, U.S. antitrust laws that prohibit IPRs acquisition by the current monopolist increase consumer welfare by almost 50%.biopharmaceuticals, biopharming, economic surplus, imperfect competition, intellectual property rights, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Financial Economics, Marketing, D23, M13, D43, D60,

Market Strategies for a Tobacco Bio-Pharming Application: The Case of Gaucher's Disease Treatment

Small firms developing biotechnology applications often focus on establishing intellectual property rights, which can then be sold to more established firms with existing market chains. This paper explores the expected 'Buyout' price and economic surplus changes for an emerging bio-pharming application with transgenic tobacco. The results suggest a 'Buyout' price of about $1.75 billion. Yet despite this potentially large payout to the innovating firm, consumers also see significant surplus gains.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Tractors on eBay and Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin: An Analysis on the Determinants of Price and Price Differences

We investigate the determinants of price for tractor auctions on eBay and tractors that are listed in the Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin (FCMB) in Georgia. Surprisingly, seller reputation is not an important factor while engine hours and the presence of air conditioning appear to influence price on eBay auctions. On average prices for tractors that sold on eBay are not different than those on FCMB. The analysis also suggests that farmers may benefit from the use of online venues.Internet auctions, farm machinery, local listings., Agribusiness, Industrial Organization, D82, L14,

Human Capital Formation in Rural America: Differences between Rural and Urban High School Dropouts

Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Evidence suggests that recent U.S. immigration laws are having a negative impact on the farming sector

While many hoped that this would be the year Congress would pass much needed immigration reform, John Boehner recently announced that he does not see a way forward on the issue. With federal government gridlocked, some states and counties have taken immigration enforcement upon themselves. Genti Kostandini and Elton Mykerezi examine the effects of local action on the agricultural industry, concluding that there is reduced immigrant presence in counties that have enforced immigration laws, leading to a decline in hired labor share, increased expenses per worker, a lower number of workers, and an overall drop in earnings for the affected farms

Do Rural Community Colleges Supply Unique Educational Benefits?

Community colleges likely draw to college individuals who would otherwise not attend due to their low costs and open admission requirements. This is labeled as the democratization effect. They may also divert individuals away from 4-year to terminal 2-year college degrees (the diversion effect). This study estimates democratization and diversion effects separately for nonmetropolitan and metropolitan youth using nationally representative data and models that account for endogenous institution selection. We find the democratization effect to exceed the diversion effect of community colleges for both metro and nonmetro youth. The democratization-diversion ratio is slightly higher for urban youth.rural, colleges, education, diversion, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, I21, R0,

Ex-Ante Evaluation of Drought Tolerant Varieties in Eastern and Central Africa

Transgenic, Drought Tolerance, Household Benefits, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries,

POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF PHARMACEUTICAL USES OF TRANSGENIC TOBACCO: THE CASE OF HUMAN SERUM ALBUMIN (HSA)

The potential size and distribution of benefits from transgenic tobacco as a source of human serum albumin are estimated using an economic surplus model with imperfect competition. The results demonstrate that new products from bio-pharming applications stand to generate significant social benefits.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Ex-Ante Analysis of the Benefits of Transgenic Drought Tolerance Research on Cereal Crops in Low-Income Countries

This paper examines the ex-ante benefits of transgenic research on drought in eight developing countries, including the potential magnitude of private sector profits. The framework employs country-specific agroecological-drought risk zones and considers both yield increases and yield variance reductions when estimating producer and consumer benefits from research. Risk benefits from yield variance reductions are shown to be an important component of aggregate drought research benefits, representing 41 percent of total benefits across the eight countries. Further, estimated annual benefits of $US 93 million to the private sector suggest that significant incentives exist for private sector participation in varietal drought tolerance research.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

On Rural-Urban Differences in Human Capital Formation: Finding the ‘Bottlenecks’

Studies have found lower levels of educational achievement for students in rural areas focusing mostly on cross-sectional data. Using the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we follow the same youth cohort to examine whether there are metro-nonmetro gaps in high cognitive achievement, high school graduation, college readiness, degree attainment, and earnings. We find that gaps emerge early in life and they remain constant through high school.In addition,results suggest that rural students graduate from high school at the same rate as their urban counterparts, but they fall behind when it comes to college graduation rates. Growing up in a rural area does not seem to impose a wage penalty beyond the lower earnings operating through cognitive test performance and college degree attainment