The Rate of Progress in Agricultural Biotechnology |
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| Authors: | Steven Buccola Yin Xia |
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| Institution: | Steven Buccola is professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Oregon State University.;Yin Xia is assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia. |
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| Abstract: | The average quality of agricultural biotechnology patents appears to have declined substantially during the past two decades. This quality deterioration may reflect either a decline in the significance of new inventions or an increased use of patents as "protective thickets" against competitors' challenges to more important discoveries. Either way, patent proliferation may be boosting the transaction costs in intellectual property markets, imperiling intellectual exchange and hence technical progress. |
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