IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea10/61333.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring the Contribution of Genetic Characteristics as an Indicator of Innovation: The Case of Corn in the USA, 1990-2009

Author

Listed:
  • Nolan, Elizabeth
  • Santos, Paulo

Abstract

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regimes for plant breeding are generally justified on the basis that they encourage innovation. Introduction of IPR regimes for plant varieties in the United States has led to increased concentration, but it is less clear whether IPRs have promoted useful innovation, as measured by productivity of available corn hybrids. There are difficulties in finding a satisfactory measure of innovation in plant breeding, and in this paper we propose a procedure. Results from the annual corn hybrid trials conducted by 11 US universities over the 20 years from 1990 to 2009, at 365 separate locations in the 11 states, have been collated. This set of unbalanced panel data for grain corn hybrid trials has been used in a fixed effects model to estimate a production function for corn and the contribution to yield of the genetic characteristics of the corn hybrids. The Hausman Taylor estimator is then used to separate out the contribution of GM traits. Because the data are experimental, the production function can be interpreted as representing the technological frontier. The cross section is made up of the corn hybrids that were submitted for trial over the period. The fixed or unobserved time invariant effects represent the part of production which can be attributed to the characteristics of a particular hybrid. This is taken to be the contribution of the "genetics" of each hybrid to yield, and the maximum fixed or unobserved effect in any one year can be considered to represent the "frontier" of genetic contribution to increased yield.

Suggested Citation

  • Nolan, Elizabeth & Santos, Paulo, 2010. "Measuring the Contribution of Genetic Characteristics as an Indicator of Innovation: The Case of Corn in the USA, 1990-2009," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61333, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea10:61333
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.61333
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/61333/files/AAEA_Paper_11782.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.61333?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rausser, Gordon C. & Scotchmer, Suzanne & Simon, Leo K., 1999. "Intellectual Property and Market Structure in Agriculture," CUDARE Working Papers 7156, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    2. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1981. "Panel Data and Unobservable Individual Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1377-1398, November.
    3. Greg Traxler & Jose Falck-Zepeda & J.I. Ortiz-Monasterio R. & Ken Sayre, 1995. "Production Risk and the Evolution of Varietal Technology," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 77(1), pages 1-7.
    4. Deepthi Elizabeth Kolady & William Lesser, 2009. "But are they Meritorious? Genetic Productivity Gains under Plant Intellectual Property Rights," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 62-79, February.
    5. Nalley, Lawton Lanier & Barkley, Andrew & Chumley, Forrest, 2008. "The Impact of the Kansas Wheat Breeding Program on Wheat Yields, 1911-2006," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(3), pages 913-925, December.
    6. L. M. Eisgruber & L. S. Schuman, 1963. "The Usefulness of Aggregated Data in the Analysis of Farm Income Variability and Resource Allocation," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 45(3), pages 587-591.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Redmond, Thomas & Nolan, Elizabeth & Martin, Peter J., 2011. "Evaluating the genetic progress of wheat in NSW, 1992-2009," 2011 Conference (55th), February 8-11, 2011, Melbourne, Australia 100702, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    2. Nolan, Elizabeth & Santos, Paulo & Shi, Guanming, 2012. "Market concentration and productivity in the United States corn sector: 2002-2009," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 125941, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nolan, Elizabeth & Santos, Paulo, 2012. "Insurance premiums and GM traits," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 125942, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Nolan, Elizabeth & Santos, Paulo & Shi, Guanming, 2012. "Market concentration and productivity in the United States corn sector: 2002-2009," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 125941, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Aaron Michael Shew & Alvaro Durand‐Morat & Lawton Lanier Nalley & Karen Ann‐Kuenzel Moldenhauer, 2018. "Estimating the benefits of public plant breeding: beyond profits," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 753-764, November.
    4. Oh, Chang Hoon & Travis Selmier, W. & Lien, Donald, 2011. "International trade, foreign direct investment, and transaction costs in languages," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 732-735.
    5. Boumahdi, Rachid & Thomas, Alban, 2006. "Instrument relevance and efficient estimation with panel data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 305-310, November.
    6. Zanini, Fabio C. & Irwin, Scott H. & Schnitkey, Gary D. & Sherrick, Bruce J., 2000. "Estimating Farm-Level Yield Distributions For Corn And Soybeans In Illinois," 2000 Annual meeting, July 30-August 2, Tampa, FL 21720, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Putsis, William Jr. & Dhar, Ravi, 2001. "An empirical analysis of the determinants of category expenditure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 277-291, June.
    8. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Claire Lelarge & John Van Reenen & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2007. "Technology, Information, and the Decentralization of the Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1759-1799.
    9. T.R.L. Fry & R.D. Brooks & Br. Comley & J. Zhang, 1993. "Economic Motivations for Limited Dependent and Qualitative Variable Models," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(2), pages 193-205, June.
    10. Régis BRETON & Sébastien GALANTI & Christophe HURLIN & Anne-Gaël VAUBOURG, 2011. "Does the firm-analyst relationship matter in explaining analysts' earnings forecast errors?," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 469, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    11. Heitmueller, Axel, 2005. "A Note on Decompositions in Fixed Effects Models in the Presence of Time-Invariant Characteristics," IZA Discussion Papers 1886, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Pedro E. Moncarz, 2010. "Determinantes del comercio de servicios financieros Potencial de exportaciones para los países sudamericanos," Documentos de trabajo 2010019, Banco Central del Uruguay.
    13. Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda O. & Winter-Nelson, Alex, 2009. "Poverty status and the impact of social networks on smallholder technology adoption in rural Ethiopia," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49357, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Florent Silve & Alexander Plekhanov, 2018. "Institutions, innovation and growth : Evidence from industry data," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 26(3), pages 335-362, July.
    15. Genti Kostandini & Bradford F. Mills & Steven Were Omamo & Stanley Wood, 2009. "Ex ante analysis of the benefits of transgenic drought tolerance research on cereal crops in low‐income countries," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(4), pages 477-492, July.
    16. Céline Nauges & Arnaud Reynaud, 2001. "Estimation de la demande domestique d'eau potable en France," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 52(1), pages 167-185.
    17. Daniel Alonso-Martínez & Nuria González-Álvarez & Mariano Nieto, 2021. "Does international patent collaboration have an effect on entrepreneurship?," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 539-559, December.
    18. Sheahan, Megan & Black, Roy & Jayne, T.S., 2013. "Are Kenyan farmers under-utilizing fertilizer? Implications for input intensification strategies and research," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 39-52.
    19. Lence, Sergio H. & Hayes, Dermot J. & Alston, Julian & Smith, J. Stephen C., 2015. "Intellectual Property in Plant Breeding: Comparing Different Levels and Forms of Protection," Staff General Research Papers Archive 38978, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    20. Stijn Claessens & Danny Cassimon, 2007. "Empirical evidence on the new international aid architecture," WEF Working Papers 0026, ESRC World Economy and Finance Research Programme, Birkbeck, University of London.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea10:61333. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.