Genetic Information in Agricultural Productivity and Product Development

David Hennessy, John Miranowski and Bruce Babcock

Staff General Research Papers Archive from Iowa State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: A prominent facet of recent changes in agriculture has been the advent of precision breeding techniques. Another has been an increase in the level of information inputs and outputs associated with agricultural production. This paper identifies ways in which these features may complement in expanding the variety of processed products, the level of productivity, and the rate of change in productivity. Using a martingale concept of ﾓmore information,ﾔ we identify conditions under which more information increases the incentives to invest and engage in product differentiation. A theory on how genetic uniformity can enhance the rate of learning through process experimentation, and so the rate of technical change, is also developed.

Keywords: experimentation; genetics; information; martingale; sorting; uniformity; value added. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-04-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in American Journal of Agricultural Economics, February 2004, vol. 86 no. 1, pp. 73-87

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/papers/paper_10340.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Genetic Information in Agricultural Productivity and Product Development (2004)
Working Paper: Genetic Information in Agricultural Productivity and Product Development (2004)
Working Paper: Genetic Information in Agricultural Productivity and Product Development (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:isu:genres:10340

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Staff General Research Papers Archive from Iowa State University, Department of Economics Iowa State University, Dept. of Economics, 260 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Curtis Balmer ().