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The Rate of Progress in Agricultural Biotechnology
Author(s) -
Buccola Steven,
Xia Yin
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
applied economic perspectives and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.4
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2040-5804
pISSN - 2040-5790
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9353.2003.00158.x
Subject(s) - agriculture , agricultural biotechnology , microbiology and biotechnology , agricultural economics , business , economics , natural resource economics , biology , ecology
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.