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Plant Breeders' Rights, Patents, and Incentives to Innovate

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  • Adrien Hervouet

    (GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA [2016-2019] - Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019])

  • Corinne Langinier

    (University of Alberta)

Abstract

Both patents and Plant Breeders' Rights (PBRs) can protect plant innovations. Unlike patents, PBRs allow farmers to save part of their harvest to replant. We analyze the impact of this exemption on prices and innovation in a monopoly setting. In a PBR regime, a monopolist might let farmers self-produce, and he over-or under-invests compared to socially optimal investments. Under a PBR and patent regime, large (small) innovations are more likely to be patented (protected with PBRs), but self-production is not completely prevented, private investments are often socially optimal, and incentives to innovate are boosted. However, overall effects on welfare are ambiguous.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrien Hervouet & Corinne Langinier, 2018. "Plant Breeders' Rights, Patents, and Incentives to Innovate," Post-Print hal-01808195, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01808195
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.267613
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01808195
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    Cited by:

    1. Ting Meng & Richard Carew & Wojciech J. Florkowski, 2020. "Determinants of the grant lag and the surrender lag of horticultural crop plant breeders’ rights applications: Survival analysis with competing risks," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 68(4), pages 489-512, December.
    2. Adrien Hervouet & Stéphane Lemarié, 2023. "The Economics of Royalty Rates in Plant Breeding," Working Papers 2023-03, Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory (GAEL).
    3. Mehdi Arzandeh & Derek G. Brewin, 2021. "R&D Investments in Plant Breeding under Changing Intellectual Property Rights," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 11(6), pages 32-47.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    plant breeders' rights; durable good; innovation; patents; seed saving;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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