The Economics of Managing Biotechnologies / Edition 1

by T.M. Swanson

Overview

The advent of new biotechnologies implies significant changes in the world, both biologically and industrially. Biologically, these new technologies represent changes on a scale never before witnessed in the context of evolutionary systems. How these systems will respond to these changes is uncertain and potentially very significant. The first part of this volume addresses these issues in a series of chapters considering the manner in which societies might analyse and manage these systemic responses to biotechnological changes.

The second part of the volume addresses the industrial issues concerning biotechnologies. One of the primary motivations for these changes is to enhance the appropriability of the value of innovation occurring within the life sciences sectors. Changing to a property rights-based system of biotechnology has implications for the nature of research and development within these sectors, and the diffusion and distribution of its benefits across the globe. Another set of chapters in this volume sets out a framework for considering these important industrial issues.

The volume is the outcome of a two-year project on the economics of managing biotechnologies in agriculture. It is recommended to academics and policy makers interested in the issues concerning society's options in the management of this process of technological change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402004995
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	03/31/2002
Series:	Economy & Environment , #22
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

Surveying the Issues: Technologies, Biology and Economics.- Biosafety in Agricultural Biotechnology: Balancing Social and Environmental Impacts.- Pest Resistance in Agriculture: An Economic Perspective.- Biotechnology for Planted Forests: An Assessment of Biological, Economic and Environmental Possibilities and Limitations.- Managing Technology: The Economics of Managing Technological Developments.- On the Economic Limits to Technological Potential: Will Industry Resolve the Resistance Problem?.- Providing the Correct Incentives for Genetic Modification.- Decision Making under Temporal Uncertainty and Irreversibility: Benchmark Values for the Release of Transgenic Crops in the EU.- Managing Biology: The Economics of Managing Biological Resistance.- Managing Pest Resistance: Timing the Initiation of Refuge Areas.- Managing the Risk of European Corn Borer Resistance to Bt Corn.- Managing Industry: The Economics of Managing Industrial Impacts.- Monopolisation and the Regulation of Genetically Modified Crops: An Economic Model.- The Diffusion of Benefits from Biotechnological Developments: The Impact of Use Restrictions on the Distribution of Benefits.- Policy Conclusions.- Plants and Biotechnologies.- Regulatory Harmony — Who’s Calling the Tune?.

Editorial Reviews

European and American economists, many specializing in agriculture, present 12 selected papers from a May 2000 workshop in Rome on the environmental and industrial impacts of biotechnologies. They discuss the problem of agricultural biotechnologies and their management implications, managing technological change for its environmental and biological consequences, introducing technological change in the context of biological resources, industrial impacts such as distribution and the concentration of capital, and policy. There is no index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR