Title

But are they Meritorious? Genetic Productivity Gains under Plant Intellectual Property Rights

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2009

Keywords

genetic improvement, Intellectual Property Rights, plant variety protection, productivity analysis, R&D policy

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) on the productive merit ⁄ yield increases of US seed varieties. As an example, we use wheat varieties, which are and have been available as both protected and unprotected under PVP from both the public and private sectors. We find evidence that PVP has contributed to the genetic improvement of wheat, using varietal trial data from Washington State. As the private open-pollinated varieties exist only because of PVP and are higher yielding, these results indicate a clear public benefit from PVP.

Publication Title

Journal of Agricultural Economics

Volume

60

Issue

1

First Page

62

Last Page

79

DOI of Published Version

10.1111/j.1477-9552.2008.00171.x

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