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| Title: | INTERNATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL R&D SPILLOVERS: ATTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS AMONG SOURCES FOR BRAZIL'S NEW CROP VARIETIES |
| Authors: | Pardey, Philip G.
Alston, Julian M.
Chan-Kang, Connie
Magalhaes, Eduardo C.
Vosti, Stephen A. |
| Authors (Email): | Pardey, Philip G. (ppardey@apec.umn.edu) |
| Keywords: | Brazil
agricultural R&D
attribution
soybeans
rice
beans
benefit-cost ratios |
| Issue Date: | 2002 |
| Series/Report no.: | Working Paper WP02-6; Paper Presented at the 8th Joint Conference on Food, Agriculture and the Environment, August 25-28, 2002, Red Cedar Lake, Wisconsin |
| Abstract: | In general, reported rates of return to agricultural R&D are high, but questions have been raised about upward biases in the evidence. Among the reasons for this bias, insufficient attention to attribution aspectsmatching of research benefits and costsis a pervasive problem, the magnitude of which is illustrated here with new evidence for Brazil. Over the period 1981 to 2003, varietal improvements in upland rice, edible beans, and soybeans yielded benefits attributable to research of $14.8 billion in present value (1999 prices) terms; 6.1 percent of the corresponding value of crop output. If all of those benefits were attributed to Embrapa, a public research corporation accounting for more than half Brazils agricultural R&D spending, the benefit-cost ratio would be 78:1. If a geometric attribution rule based on genetic histories is used in conjunction with quantitative evidence on the extent of research collaborations to account for the innovative effort of others, the ratio drops substantially to 16:1. The sources of these gains vary markedly among crops and over time, making it hard to generalize about the international and institutional origins of varietal innovations in Brazilian agriculture during the past several decades. |
| URI: | http://purl.umn.edu/14422 |
| Institution/Association: | University of Minnesota>Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy>Working Papers |
| Total Pages: | 39 |
| Language: | English |
| Collections: | Working Papers
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