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Intellectual Property Rights And Concentration In Agricultural Biotechnology William Lesser Cornell University AgBioForum Fall98 v.1, n.2 The relationships between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and structural change are examined in this paper. Intellectual property rights are a complex, multifaceted area and one in which corporate strategies are poorly understood. Nevertheless, it is argued here that IPRs can affect firm entry, can make vertical integration in downstream industries more or less necessary, and can create financial incentives for downstream mergers and acquisitions. Hence, IPRs can have significant structural impacts. Key words: intellectual property rights; agrobiotechnology; industry structure; research and development (R&D) The later 1990s have been a tumultuous time for merger and acquisition activity among firms involved in agricultural biotechnology. By the end of the third quarter of 1998, Monsanto alone had been involved in 18 acquisitions and had itself agreed and then reneged on a merger with American Home Products. In addition, Monsanto completed overseas acquisitions worth a total of $7.3 billion over two years. Novartis was formed by the merging of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, while DuPont chose to enter the market through joint ventures; a total of 20 joint ventures valued at over $5 billion (Moore, 1998). These mergers have contributed greatly to a restructuring of the seed industry. Most notably, Monsanto controlled up to 40 percent of seed for the 1998 United States (U.S.) soybean crop and, if approved, full acquisition of Delta & Pine Land will give Monsanto ownership of at least 80 percent of the U.S. cotton seed industry (Kilman & Warren, 1998). This is not the only incidence of major acquisition activity, a previous one occurred about 20 years earlier. Butler and Marion (1985) list 27 mergers during the period 1978-80. The 1980 date is pivotal as it marks some strengthening amendments to the United States Plant Variety Prot

Role of institutions in rural policies and agricultural markets / edited by Guido van Huylenbroeck, Wim Verbeke, Ludwig Lauwers, Volume 2003 European Association of Agricultural Economists. Seminar, Guido van Huylenbroeck, Wim Verbeke, Ludwig Lauwers 0 Resenhas Emerald Group Publishing, 2004 - 461 páginas The agri-food sector is continuously confronted with major challenges. It is a complex sector in the economy because of its important societal implications and embeddedness within a broader rural system. Furthermore, the agricultural sector is a multi-agent sector with a complex chain of inputs, intermediates, outputs and markets that are highly regulated. Multi-agency and strong government regulation result in a complex institutional system. The aim of this book is to bring a selected state-of-the-art of the conceptual and empirical New Institutional Economics-inspired research by European agricultural economists. Besides the social environment, the two main components of the institutional environment are policies and markets. The title of this book tries to capture the main subjects. For a farmer, as an economic producing actor and social agent, his environment comprises of politics, markets and rurality, of which the first is seeking to get more ordering in the two others. Furthermore, the term rural in the title tries to capture, both in policies and markets, the usual agricultural activities as well as the new ones which are more oriented to the rural social system. This book focuses on the three main areas of interest in institutions: policy implementation, market and supply chain organisation and management of rural resources and rural systems. The chapters are covering insights on the significance of institutions on transaction costs, policy analysis, policy reform, market and chain dynamics, input markets, agri-environmental policies, social capital and bottom-up approaches.

GRAFF, Greg et al Agricultural Biotechnology and Globalization: U.S. experience with public and private sector research 

Issue 1 - Biofuels Feb 2008 Interest in biofuels is growing and proposed European Commission targets to increase the amount of biofuels used in transportation to 10 per cent is likely to drive further research and development in this field. But the move to increase biofuel production raises concerns about the impact of biofuel crops on the environment, landscape and food security.

"After almost fifteen years in the laboratory and in the test plots, bioengineered crops arrived to the market in the mid-1990s. Adoption was rapid and widespread. In 1996, less than 4 million acres in six countries were planted with bioengineered plants. By 2001, worldwide adoption had expanded to more than 115 million acres." The foretelling of a scientific revolution has persistently raised expectations on the potential of agrobiotechnology, and first-generation agrobiotechnologies have had to confront such expectations in the field and in the market. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective explains how well they have fared. It brings together leading authors from around the world who have analyzed the production, environmental and economic impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. By pooling experiences across various countries, time periods, crops, and traits this global panel synthesizes a complete picture of the impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective offers this assessment, accounting for the full range of differences in geography, weather, pests, farm structures and institutions that had not been completed previously, and answers these important questions: *What were the factors driving the widespread adoption of these first generation agrobiotechnologies? *What were their economic and environmental impacts? *How were such impacts distributed among innovators and adopters, developed and developing countries, exporters and importers, domestic and foreign consumers? *How were such impacts and their distribution affected by market structures and government policies?

The strategies of rent appropriation and industry structure are inter-dependent. How firms use patents depends upon industry structure, and in turn, affects industry structure. In the 19th century, market leaders in the chemical industry combined patents and secrecy to deter entry. Within cartels, patents were used to stabilize cartels and organize technology licensing. The role of patents changed in the less concentrated post World War II markets. In bulk organic chemicals and petrochemicals, chemical producers use licensing as an important means of generating revenue from process innovations. The increased importance of technology licensing is closely related to the emergence of a class of specialized process design and engineering firms that have played an important role in the development and diffusion of process innovations.