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Search About CSDi CSDi is firmly committed to proven, results-based solutions to end suffering and poverty. Our goal is to spread these solutions across the globe through our in-depth field guides and interactive online workshops. Work with us and become the solution. We've trained development professionals... in 103 countries who have developed course projects... impacting over 100,000 people. ~ What our students are saying: I really appreciate the time you have taken to go through correcting assignments.... I am very confident that all your labours are producing lots of learning and stimulation for your students. MATT, IRELAND Facebook Like Box Upcoming Courses ¡Cursos Nuevos en Español! May 17 - July 11 101: From the Ground Up May 17 - July 11 341: Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change May 17 - July 11 Adaptación Basado en la Comunidad-CBA May 17 - July 11 Upcoming Online Development Courses May 2011 Community Based Adaptation: 300 Hands-On Field Activities Donate CSDi, a 501c3, relies on your generous donations for our work, training individuals to be the solution in communities across the globe. News Newsletter: March Newsletter: Project Sustainability: Put the Community in Charge. Field Project of the Month: Rainwater Harvesting: Mexico City Google Translate Translate This Website Powered by Google Tradutor iLearning Experience Student Testimonials International Partnerships Learning Environment Student Field Projects Example Assignment: Kenya Student Countries, Organizations, Project Challenges HANDS-ON FIELD ACTIVITIES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED ADAPTATION Module OL 340: Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change Posted by Tim Magee CSDi is pleased to present a compilation of Community Based Adaptation Field Activities-complete with links to source materials and technical information-compiled from case studies & from projects developed by CSDi field partners & online students. We encourage you to submit activities: Onl

ARE 242 Spring 2005 Course Syllabus   Gordon Rausser Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-2:00 201 Giannini Hall     Class Date Reading Assignment Tuesday January 18 Rausser, G.C. and R.E. Goodhue. "Public Policy: Its Many Analytical Dimensions," in Handbook of Agricultural Economics, B. Gardner and G. Rausser (eds.). Volume 2, Chapter 39, Elsevier North Holland, 2002.   Thursday January 20 Alston, J.M. and J.S. James. "The Incidence of Agricultural Policy," in Handbook of Agricultural Economics, B. Gardner and G. Rausser (eds.). Volume 2, Chapter 33, Elsevier North Holland, 2002.   Chambers, R.G., "The incidence of agricultural policies," Journal of Public Economics 57, (1995) 317-335.   Floyd, J.E. "The Effects of Farm Price Supports on the Returns to Land and Labor in Agriculture." Journal of Political Economy 73 (1965), p. 148-158.   Tuesday January 25 Baylis, K., G. Rausser, and L. Simon, "Agri-Environmental Program in the United States and European Union," in Agricultural Policy Reform and the WTO: Where Are We Heading?," G. Anania, M.E. Bohman, C.A. Carter, and A.F. McCalla (eds.) Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2004.   Glebe, T.W. "Multifunctionality: How "Green" is the "European Model of Agriculture"? Environmental Economics, Resource Economics and Agricultural Policy Research Group, Discussion Paper 01-2003.   Swinbank, A. "Multifunctionality: A European Euphemism for Protection?" Presented at the FWAG Conference: Multifunctional Agriculture-A European Model, Stoneleigh, UK, November 29, 2001.   Thursday January 27 Hodge, I. "Agri-environmental Relationships and the Choice of Policy Mechanism," The World Economy, 26 (5), May, 2003, 705-725.   Blandford, D. and R.N. Boisvert, "Multifunctional Agriculture-A View from the United States," Plenary paper presented at the 90th EAAE Seminar: Multifunctional Agriculture, Policies and Markets: Understanding the Critical Linkage; Rennes, France, October 28-29, 200

Special Issue "Renewable Agriculture" Quicklinks Special Issue Editors Published Papers Special Issue Information Keywords Planned Papers A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2009) Special Issue Editor Guest Editor Dr. Stephen S. Jones Director, Northwestern Research and Extension Center, Washington State University, Mount Vernon, Washington 98273, USA E-Mail: joness@wsu.edu Published Papers Click here to see a list of 19 papers that have been published in this special issue. Special Issue Information Dear Colleagues, For centuries the perceived need for an immediate and dramatic increase in agricultural production has been a theme throughout the developed world. But only very recently, and with less urgency, has society recognized the need for the true sustainability of agricultural production. For long-term sustainability, agriculture must have the capacity for renewal. Even the most basic forms of agriculture require an input of energy, this in essence is what defines the system as agricultural. Starting with human and animal labor, energy inputs have developed into an industrial system using fertilizers, water, seed, pest control, and other products often brought in from off the farm. While these products may increase production, for the most part they are non-renewable, require vast amounts of fuel to produce and transport, are costly, and may harm the native organisms and environment. Additionally, most seed in industrial agriculture is non-renewable due to legal and genetic mechanisms that make it problematic for farmers to save and replant what they have grown on their farms. Is a renewable agriculture with a high level of productivity possible? What research is underway to test the robustness of current systems when measured against a standard of true long-term sustainability? Stephen S. Jones, Ph. D. Guest Editor   Submission Information All papers should be submitted to

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

Abstracts for papers and proposals for sessions (no more than 500 words) will be considered by the conference Scientific Committee. For sessions an overview and 3-4 abstracts should be proposed, and a session chair identified. Both, paper abstracts and session proposals should be submitted to it-apn2010@ivm.vu.nl by 15 October 2010. The conference Scientific Committee will provide decisions on selected papers and sessions by the 30 October 2010. Those invited to present will be asked to provide short papers by 15 December 2010. These will be made available on the conference website: http://umconference.um.edu.my/it-apn2011 prior to the meeting. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to make 15 minute presentations at the conference. Guidelines for Fullpaper Submission The full papers should be up to 8000 words and include title, authors names and affiliations incl. address, telephone and email, abstract, main text and references. Pls number your pages. Figures and tables should be part of the text and not a separate file. We do not define font, spacing or format - just be reasonable by avoiding extremes. The full papers should rather be submitted as pdfs for better protection but of course word files will also be accepted. Papers Accepted for Presentation 012 The development of biofuel in Indonesia from diffusion and stakeholder interactions - Joni Jupesta   014 Niche management policy to increase the market share of Alternative Fuel Vehicles : A system dynamics model of the policy effect - Tae-Hyeong Kwon   015 Enhancing Sustained Adoption of Innovations: The Case of Bio-nitrogen Fertilizer in the Philippines - Linda Penalba   016 Enabling poverty relevant bio-fertilizer bio-innovation systems - lessons from India - Sunita Sungar   017 Ethical Market: Ethnographic Encounter with Global Market, CML patients, and Glivec in South Korea - Eun Jeong Ma   018 Surge of high-input vegetable production in northern Thailand: Is the innovation pro-poor and gende

THE ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY This research focuses on the development of an integrated framework for understanding the dynamics of the generation, dissemination and exploitation of technological knowledge and its effects on the growth of companies, regions and countries. It involves the use of different methodological designs, ranging from network analysis to econometrics and clinical case studies, to accommodate the variety of issues under scrutiny and to combine theoretical contributions and supporting empirical analyses. It includes several principal research lines: * Knowledge structure and productivity growth * Generation and exploitation of technological change: Market value and total factor productivity * Biased technological change and total factor productivity based on country and regional European evidence. . The topics explored within this line of research include: 1. Microeconomic analysis of the relationships between firm performance and human capital and technological knowledge. 2. Investigation of the relationships between education, scientific and technological knowledge, and regional economic growth. 3. Analysis of country and industry level productivity differentials among the industrialized countries and between industrialized and developing countries. It is hoped that this research will result in an organic heuristic structure that explains the complex and composite nature of the economic transformations in advanced countries. Recent publications Antonelli, C. and Calderini, M., 2008, 'The governance of knowledge compositeness and technological performance: The case of the automotive industry in Europe', Economics of Innovation and New Technology (17) 23-41. Antonelli, C., 2008, 'The new economics of the university: A knowledge governance approach', Journal of Technology Transfer, (33): 1-22. Antonelli, C., 2008, Localized Technological Change. Towards the Economis of Complexity, London: Routledge. Antonelli C. and T

Carbon Footprint May Deepen Latin AmericaTrade Vulnerability The emerging role of the carbon footprint as a tool for climate change mitigation for developed countries in line with their international commitments is increasing in importance, but its possible consequences for trade in Latin America are a long way from being fully understood and resolved.  The carbon footprint refers to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emitted during the life-cycle of a product along the supply chain, and sometimes including end-of-life recovery and disposal. Overall, the region lacks consensus on the benefits of the carbon footprint, with some concerned about the possible hindrance to trade, while others see it as an opportunity. Since Latin America and the Caribbean has an export matrix heavily dependent on environmentally sensitive products, and thus would be affected by measures taken that discriminate products based on their carbon footprint, Latin American countries are concerned that the "carbon content" of goods may result in "protectionism". This is especially worrisome, since developing countries are hardly responsible for the vast majority of historical carbon emissions and emit far less per capita than developed nations. In addition, LAC has a wide range of products that are destined for the markets currently discussed in carbon footprint laws. For example, of Argentina's total global exports in 2008, 1,8 % correspond to vehicles to France, and of Brazil's total global exports in 2009, 0.6% correspond to coffee exports to Germany. These types of products are already included in the carbon footprint product families proposed by France and coffee in the products considered in Germany. Therefore, countries could incur increased cost or suffer from decreased international demand if their products are considered higher in carbon intensity at comparable prices. Other vulnerable sectors identified from the LAC region include textiles, salmon, frozen foods and flowers. Carbon

Donald F. Larson's Scholarly Papers Click on the title of any column to sort the table by that column. Aggregate Statistics Total Downloads 5,552 Total Citations 84 Papers (30) Authors Date Downloads  (Rank) Citations ACTIONS:    Email Selected Abstracts    Export Selected Bibliographic Info    VIEW: Selected      Original List     All Versions       All Abstracts       Legend 1.   Commodity Risk Management and Development | Show Abstract | Download | World Bank Policy Research Paper No. 1963 Working Paper Series Donald F. F. Larson World Bank Development Research Group Panos Varangis World Bank - Agriculture and Rural Development Department Nanae Yabuki United Nations - Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Posted: 07 Oct 04 1,081 (5,084) 8 2.   Dealing with Commodity Price Uncertainty | Show Abstract | Download | World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1667 Working Paper Series Panos Varangis World Bank - Agriculture and Rural Development Department Donald F. F. Larson World Bank Development Research Group Posted: 24 Nov 04 599 (12,921) 13 3.   Uncertainty and the Price for Crude Oil Reserves | Show Abstract | Download | World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1655 Working Paper Series Donald F. F. Larson World Bank Development Research Group Posted: 20 Oct 04 536 (15,210)   4.   Warehouse Receipts: Facilitating Credit and Commodity Markets | Show Abstract | Download | Working Paper Series Daniele Giovannucci Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) Panos Varangis World Bank - Agriculture and Rural Development Department Donald F. F. Larson World Bank Development Research Group Posted: 15 Jan 07 375 (24,641) 1 5.   Carbon Markets, Institutions, Policies, and Research | Show Abstract | Download | World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4761 Working Paper Series Donald F. F. Larson World Bank Development Research Group Philippe Ambrosi World Bank Ariel Dinar World Bank - Agriculture and Rura

Training Opportunities IAIA recognizes that the training of EIA professionals is a key to effective impact assessments. Through its Training and Professional Development Committee, this section of the IAIA web site will provide members and non-members with information regarding training manuals, training courses, and other aspects of EIA capacity building. IAIA has just begun developing its training network. If you know of information that would make this section more useful, please contact info@iaia.org Training Home UNEP Training Manual Use this link to buy or print a copy of the "Training Resource Manual for Environmental Impact Assessment" (2nd Edition), including Transparencies and Case Studies prepared by the United Nations Environment Program. This 600 page document is a must for any person who is engaged in EIA training. Training Network This link will help EIA professionals use the Internet to find out about training programs and EIA learning resources around the world. Training Course Database Other Manuals and Reports Strategic Environmental Assessment Manual IAIA is pleased to make available, at no cost, the course manual on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), prepared by Maria Rosário Partidário. Dr. Partidário's course on SEA has been the best-attended training session at IAIA's annual meetings for many years, and gets high ratings from attendees for its presentation of SEA current practices, future demands and capacity building needs. International Study of the Effectiveness of Environmental Assessment - Final Report IAIA is pleased to make available, at no cost, the final report on "Environmental assessment in a changing world : evaluating practice to improve performance" prepared by Barry Sadler. The two year international EA effectiveness study, commissioned by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and IAIA and taken forward by an international consortium of countries and international agencies, remains a landmark review of th

Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin About the Author Search CEE Home | CEE | 2nd edition | Tragedy of the Commons In 1974 the general public got a graphic illustration of the "tragedy of the commons" in satellite photos of the earth. Pictures of northern Africa showed an irregular dark patch 390 square miles in area. Ground-level investigation revealed a fenced area inside of which there was plenty of grass. Outside, the ground cover had been devastated. The explanation was simple. The fenced area was private property, subdivided into five portions. Each year the owners moved their animals to a new section. Fallow periods of four years gave the pastures time to recover from the grazing. The owners did this because they had an incentive to take care of their land. But no one owned the land outside the ranch. It was open to nomads and their herds. Though knowing nothing of Karl Marx, the herdsmen followed his famous advice of 1875: "To each according to his needs." Their needs were uncontrolled and grew with the increase in the number of animals. But supply was governed by nature and decreased drastically during the drought of the early 1970s. The herds exceeded the natural "carrying capacity" of their environment, soil was compacted and eroded, and "weedy" plants, unfit for cattle consumption, replaced good plants. Many cattle died, and so did humans. The rational explanation for such ruin was given more than 170 years ago. In 1832 William Forster Lloyd, a political economist at Oxford University, looking at the recurring devastation of common (i.e., not privately owned) pastures in England, asked: "Why are the cattle on a common so puny and stunted? Why is the common itself so bare-worn, and cropped so differently from the adjoining inclosures?" Lloyd's answer assumed that each human exploiter of the common was guided by self-interest. At the point when the carrying capacity of the commons was fully reached, a herdsman might ask himsel

This book explores the economic impact of supermarkets on food supply chains in developing countries, with particular emphasis on the generation/displacement of employment, the (re)-distribution of benefits along the food chain and the role of government is attracting, facilitating and regulating the growth of supermarkets in South America, Africa and Asia. Aimed primarily at academics but will appeal to practitioners in developing countries, civil servants, policy-makers and NGOs. The internationalization of food retailing and manufacturing that has swept through the agri-food system in industrialised countries is now moving into middle- and low-income countries with large rural populations, causing significant institutional changes that affect small producer agriculture and the livelihoods of rural communities the world over. Farmers and policy-makers are struggling to keep up with the wave of new demands being made on their supply chains by food manufacturers and retailers. In the process, new questions and challenges are arising: Can small-scale farmers organize to meet the demands of corporate giants? Should governments liberalize Foreign Direct Investment in the retail sector and expose numerous small shops to competition from multinationals? Can distribution systems be adapted to make markets work better for the poor? This book offers a contemporary look at what happens when the modernisation of food supply chains comes face to face with the livelihoods of rural and poor people. The authors are drawn from eighteen countries participating in the 'Regoverning Markets' programme, which aims to not only improve our understanding of the way modernization and re-structuring of food supply chains is affecting food production and distribution systems, but also identify best-practice in involving small-scale producers in supermarket supply chains, and ascertain the barriers to inclusion which need to be removed. Contents: Part One The Economic and Policy Context: The

The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development Book, Earthscan December 2006 Editor: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2005-2006 Ordering Information for this publication Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Science, Technology, and Globalization; Science, Technology, and Public Policy   OVERVIEW The high-yield selective breeding of "the Green Revolution" of the 1960s and '70s is now being overtaken by "the Gene Revolution" - the development and spread of GM crops across the world. With over 90 million hectares already under cultivation and 60 countries conducting research, GM is reviled by some as a vast Pandora's Box and corporate sell-out, while hailed by others as the necessary technological solution to stagnating agricultural output, ballooning populations, climate change and drought. Sandwiched in between are developing and transitional countries where the need to feed vast populations and to compete against the US in international markets are compelling reasons to get on the GM bandwagon. This is the first book to bridge the gap between the "naysayers" and "cheerleaders", and to provide a penetrating examination of the realities, complexities, benefits and pitfalls of GM adoption in developing countries that are desperately fighting poverty while trying to stay afloat in the hyper-competitive global economy. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is a Visiting Professor at the New School University in New York. She was a Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She was Director and chief author of UNDP's Human Development Report from 1995 to 2004 and a member of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Technology. Chapters Introduction: Genetically Modified Crops and National Development Priorities Emergence and Global Spread of GM Crops: Explaining the Role of Institutional Change Institutional Changes in Argentina, Brazil,

Between the local and the global: confronting complexity in the contemporary agri-food sector Terry Marsden, Jonathan Murdoch 0 Resenhas Emerald Group Publishing, 2006 - 358 páginas The volume presents a range of critical perspectives on the contemporary agri-food sector. The starting point is the recognition that geography matters in agri-food more than ever, and it plays a diverse range of roles in shaping production-consumption relations. With hindsight, it may be argued that the extensive rural sociological literature on the globalisation of food over the past twenty years has tended to over-emphasise the degree to which food products and processes have indeed been industrialised and standardised. But if diversity and variety have become increasingly significant in distinguishing food commodities, spaces of production, and the practices of consumption, how are we to critically understand and theorise this complexity? What are the features of the institutional, private, public and civic frameworks that work to promote and sustain diversity and complexity in the international food sector both within and between the global and the local? What new or reconfigured sets of power relations are developing through the unfolding of this complexity; and what do these suggest for the sustainability or vulnerability of rural locales and natures? Through the two sections of the book- first concerning Theorising Complexity, and the second, problematising Local development and Local complexities- and bringing together under this theme international theoretical and empirical comparisons, the book begins to explore this rich rural sociological and development field. The chapters examine in detail the ways that constellations of organisations, cultures and entrepreneurial practices become embedded in discrete spatial areas. They show the importance of these areas and their associated institutions to the contemporary, and increasingly contingent development of the international

THE ECONOMICS OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Innovation is acknowledged to be a multidimensional and complex process. Thus, traditional research and development (R&D) expenditures capture only a portion of the sources of and activities involved in innovation. Innovation investment includes: a) basic research; b) product development; c) adoption of new production techniques and technologies; d) organizational change; e) distribution and market changes; f) production organization and access to production factors; and g) training and the development of new skills. Traditional in-house R&D investment is being complemented by external sources of innovation and new knowledge. Recent contributions in the economics of knowledge and innovation highlight that innovation is a cooperative and collective process. Collaboration between firms, and between firms and universities, R&D centres and technology transfer centres is a strategy aimed at the sharing of knowledge and competencies, and obtaining the benefits of technological complementarities. Innovation is rarely the result of individual firm efforts; it generally emerges from the interactions among local firms and institutions within a network of innovators. This research is aimed at identifying, understanding and classifying the different ways firms innovate, distinguishing between internal and external sources. Special emphasis is put on understanding the multiple organizational forms involved in innovation and the problems encountered by economic agents and their organizations in acquiring and coordinating their innovative capabilities. The theoretical framework developed is tested on the automotive industry. Recent publications

Following up on recent debates about sectoral systems of innovation and production, the paper introduces a heuristic framework for analyzing and explaining distinct patterns of technology-based sectoral change. The concept is based on two interrelated influencing factors. The first is the sectoral-specific transformative capacity of new technologies themselves, that is, their substantial or incremental impact on socioeconomic and institutional change in a given sectoral system. The second is the sectoral adaptability of socioeconomic structures, institutions, and actors confronted with the opportunities presented by new technologies. The first factor-the sectoral transformative capacity of new technologies-enables us to identify the technology-based pressure to change and adjust the structural, institutional, and organizational architectures of the sectoral system. The second, complementary factor-sectoral adaptability-helps us to discern the distinct social patterns of anticipating and adopting this technology-based pressure. The specific interplay between the two influencing factors creates distinguishable modes of sectoral transformation, ranging from anticipative and smooth adjustments to reactive and crisis-ridden patterns of change. Even processes of radical sectoral change continue over longer periods of mismatch and are characterized by numerous and mostly gradual organizational, structural and institutional transformations. Article Outline 1. Technology-based socioeconomic and institutional change: starting points 2. Sociotechnical systems and periods of mismatch 3. New technologies and their transformative capacity 3.1. Specification I: endogenous vs. exogenous technology 3.2. Specification II: low vs. high transformative capacity 4. New technologies and sectoral adaptability 4.1. Specification I: low adaptability 4.2. Specification II: high adaptability 4.2.1. High intensity of innovation and market competition 4.2.2. Transformation-supporting in

Learning Resources This page contains learning resources for the e-agriculture.org community.  These are courses and modules focused on e-Agriculture as a field or designed to teach participants skills relevant to areas of e-Agriculture.  If you come across other such resources, we hope you will contribute them. Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) The Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) is a partnership-based e-Learning initiative to train individuals and support institutions and networks world-wide in the effective management of agricultural information. IMARK consists of a suite of distance learning resources, tools and communities on information management. IMARK learning materials are being developed as a series of modules available online and on CD-ROM. The modules are being developed using the latest methods in e-learning, providing an interactive environment for self-paced learning. List of IMARK Modules ItrainOnline Multimedia Training Kit  The ItrainOnline MMTK is a growing collection of "workshop kits" for face-to-face training. The materials use a standard set of templates, and offer building blocks for trainers to build their own courses. Materials are available in English, French, Arabic, and Russian, and cover technical skills, content development skills, developing thematic content, organizational development and planning, and ICT policy, advocacy, and the digital divide. CGIAR Online Learning Resources Center From this page you can access a repository of CGIAR Centers' learning objects and other training resources, as well as Web-based training courses. You can access these sites anonymously to search and retrieve information and resources as well as enrol in courses. If you wish to contribute resources or need further information please contact the Learning Resources Team. Thank you for visiting. The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) This is a partnership of over 120 learning centres (GDLN Affiliates) in nearly

Handbook of the Economics of Innovation Set Authors  Submit Your Book Proposal Hardbound, 1400 pages Published: MAR-2010 ISBN 13: 978-0-444-53611-2 Imprint: NORTH-HOLLAND Actions    Submit Your Review    Recommend to Friend    Bookmark this Page Edited By Bronwyn H. Hall, University of California at Berkeley,CA, USA Nathan Rosenberg, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Economists examine the genesis of technological change and the ways we commercialize and diffuse it.  The economics of property rights and patents, in addition to industry applications, are also surveyed through literature reviews and predictions about fruitful research directions. - Two volumes, available as a set or sold separately Included in series Handbooks in Economics Audience: Students and researchers studying technological change.  Articles are written by economists for a multidisciplinary readership, including industry professionals, attorneys, educators, and anyone interested in new technologies. Ordering Contents Reviews Volume I: Chapters 1-16 1. Introduction to the handbook;  2.  The contribution of economic history to the study of innovation and technical change: 1750-1914;  3.  Technical change and industrial dynamics as evolutionary processes;  4.  Empirical studies of innovative activity and performance;  5.  The economics of science; 6.  University research and public-private interaction; 7.  Property rights and invention; 8.  Stylized facts in the geography of innovation; 9.  Open User Innovation; 10.  Learning by doing; 11.  Innovative conduct in computing and internet markets; 12.  Pharmaceutical innovation; 13.  Collective invention and invention networks; 14.  The financing of R&D and innovation; 15.  The market for technology; 16.  Technological innovation and the theory of the firm: The role of enterprise level knowledge, complimentarities, and (dynamic) capabilities Volume II: Chapters 17-29 17.  The diffusion of new technolog

Natural disasters and extreme events in agriculture: impacts and mitigation M. V. K. Siva Kumar, Mannava V. K. Sivakumar, Raymond P. Motha, Haripada P. Das 0 Resenhas Springer, 2005 - 367 páginas Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate-related disasters. Droughts and natural disasters such as floods can result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and negative national economic growth. It may not be possible to prevent the occurrence of these natural disasters, but the resultant disastrous effects can be reduced considerably through proper planning and effective preparation. Vulnerability associated with the hazards of natural disasters can be controlled to some extent by accurate and timely prediction and by taking counter-measures to reduce their impacts on agriculture. This book based on an expert meeting held in Beijing, China should be of interest to all organizations involved in disasters reduction and mitigation of extreme events. TOC:Preface.- Impacts of Natural Disasters in Agriculture.- The Role of Disaster Preparedness in National Planning.- The Occurrence and Predictability of Extreme Events.- Accessibility of Database Information.- Tools for Forecasting or Warning.- Agrometeorological Impact Assessment.- Damage Assessment of Agrometeorological Relevance.- Impacts of Tropical Cyclones on Chinese Lowland Agriculture.- Frost and High Temperature Injury in China.- Impacts of Sand Storms/Dust Storms on Agriculture.- Disaster Reduction Planning and Response.- Agricultural Drought Policy and Practices in Australia.- Agrometeorological Disaster Risk Management in China.- Degradation of Vegetation and Agricultural Productivity.- Agricultural Drought Mitigation.- Early Detection and Monitoring of Drought and Flood in China.- The Decision of the Center of a Tropical Cyclone.- Application of Remote Sensing and GIS fo

Appropriate biotechnology in small-scale agriculture: how to reorient research and development. Personal Authors: Author Affiliation: Department of Biology and Society, Faculty of Biology, Free University, De Boelelaan, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Editors: Bunders, J. F. G., Broerse, J. E. W. Document Title: Appropriate biotechnology in small-scale agriculture: how to reorient research and development. Abstract: The first chapter (by the editors) outlines the potential of various biotechnology techniques for developing countries, and the gap between need and access to new technology. Tissue culture, improved biological nitrogen fixation, biological control and diagnostics are seen as the most applicable. Part 1 of the book (by the editors and Steen Joffe) is entitled 'Towards criteria for assessment of project proposals' and consists of the following chapters: a case study: yam tissue culture in the Caribbean; guidelines for assessment of project proposals; and practical implications. The guidelines suggested include meeting specific end-user needs, assessing economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts, having government and institutional support, technical feasibility and safety, superiority to existing options, and building indigenous research capacity. Successful projects are characterized by the vision of entrepreneurs and the opportunities that they see, a formal interdisciplinary team of intermediaries to initiate projects which involve scientists from a range of disciplines, networking and team building through informal channels, a carefully designed preparatory phase in which a rough idea is further specified, legitimized and justified, and a prestigious sponsor to give moral support to the idea. Part 2, 'An interactive bottom-up approach in agricultural research' (by the editors and Annelies Stolp), contains the followng chapters: different approaches to technology development for Third World agriculture; implementation strategies for innov

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of research focused on the processes through which technological capabilities are acquired by countries significantly behind the economic frontier, and the institutions that effectively support the catching up process. This book is a splendid contribution to this literature. The concept of a "sectoral innovation system" is well suited for framing studies of these kinds of questions, and serves well to unify the many interesting empirical studies in the book. Some of those studies are success stories, others of less successful cases. Readers new to this body of research will find this book a great introduction. All readers will learn a lot from it about what is required for and involved in economic development.' Richard R. Nelson, Columbia Earth Institute, US and University of Manchester, UK This book examines in detail the features and dynamics of sectoral systems of innovation and production in developing countries. Processes of rapid growth are usually associated with specific sectors such as automobiles, electronics or software, as well as with the transformation of traditional sectors such as agriculture and food. The book shows, however, that the variations across all these sectors in terms of structure and dynamics is so great that a full understanding of these differences is necessary if innovation is to be encouraged and growth sustained. The expert contributors promote this understanding by drawing upon empirical evidence from a wide range of sectoral systems, from traditional to high technology, and across a number of countries. They explore how these systems change and evolve, highlighting policy lessons to be drawn from the analysis. Case studies include the Brazilian aeronautical, pulp and paper industries, the Korean machine tool sector, motorbike manufacture in Thailand and Vietnam, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication equipment in India, ICT in Taiwan, the biofuels s