Progress 10/01/01 to 09/30/06
Outputs
In the final year (2005-06) of this project, Prof. Masters completed a revised proposal to the Gates Foundation for a way in which they could reward innovators proportionally to the adoption and impact of new technologies. The proposed mechanism for such "prize" awards is the final result of efforts undertaken in this project to improve our measurement of impacts from innovation, so as to help expand and target the flow of R&D investments towards the most important kinds of innovation. In support of the prizes proposal, Prof. Masters has received a "Linkages" grant from IFPRI, and numerous invitations to present and discuss the concept at various international meetings. Most notably in 2004-06 he presented the proposal at meetings in Geneva, Switzerland (a conference sponsored by CropLife International and in Queensland, Australia (the conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists). Other accomplishments under this project include the
publication of impact analyses for several important R&D programs, notably the effects of improved cocoa genetics in Ghana, the interaction of improved cocoa with forest property rights in Cameroon, and the spread of improved cassava varieties across West Africa. Finally, this work on impact assessment has been put into the broader context of international agriculture through publication of a new undergraduate textbook on Economics of Agricultural Development, published by Routledge.
Impacts
The expected impact of this project is the allocation of some funds for 'prize' payments to innovators, in proportion to the economic gains from adoption of the technologies with which they are associated. Such prize payments would provide additional resources to the most successful projects and partnerships, and would provide an unusually credible, authoritative source of guidance to others regarding what types of work are most likely to generate significant economic gains.
Publications
- G. Norton, J. Alwang and W.A. Masters, 2006. Economics of Agricultural Development. New York: Routledge (448 pages).
- M.E. Johnson, W.A. Masters and P.V. Preckel, 2006. 'Diffusion and Spillover of New Technology: A Heterogeneous-Agent Model for Cassava in West Africa', Agricultural Economics, forthcoming.
- H. Kazianga and W.A. Masters, 2006. 'Property Rights, Production Technology and Deforestation: Cocoa in Cameroon'. Agricultural Economics, 35(1): 19-26.
- J. Edwin and W.A. Masters, 2005. 'Genetic Improvement and Cocoa Yields in Ghana'. Experimental Agriculture, 41(4, Oct.): 491-503.
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Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/05
Outputs
This project focuses on the use of prize-type payments to innovators, made proportionally to the adoption and impact of their new technologies, as a mechanism to guide and accelerate the pace of investment in new agricultural techniques. Over the 2004-05 year, the need for such an intervention was detailed in an article in the Journal of International Affairs, while the design of how to implement it was published in the International Journal of Biotechnology. Over the year, invitations were received to present the concept to private R&D firms at the annual conference of CropLife International, and also to foreign-aid donors at the World Bank and USAID, and to policy analysts at two separate conferences in Washington DC, one hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center and one hosted by the International Food Policy Research Institute. As a result of these efforts, it appears increasingly likely that the proposed funding mechanism will actually be implemented in the coming
years. If so, it would represent a dramatic increase in the accountability and transparency of funding for public agricultural research, strengthening the research system by incorporating much more information about economic impacts in resource allocation.
Impacts
The expected impact of this project is the allocation of some funds for 'prize' payments to innovators, in proportion to the economic gains from adoption of the technologies with which they are associated. Such prize payments would provide additional resources to the most successful projects and partnerships, and would provide an unusually credible, authoritative source of guidance to others regarding what types of work are most likely to generate significant economic gains.
Publications
- Masters, W.A. 'Paying for Prosperity: How and Why to Invest in Agricultural R&D in Africa' (2005), Journal of International Affairs, 58(2): 35-64.
- Masters, W.A. 'Research Prizes: A New Kind of Incentive for Innovation in African Agriculture' (2005), International Journal of Biotechnology 7(1/2/3): 195-211.
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Progress 10/01/03 to 09/29/04
Outputs
This project aims to improve global economic conditions by improving the incentives for agricultural innovation in Africa and other very low-income regions, where the slow pace of agricultural technology development and dissemination has left millions of people in extreme poverty, with little stake in the world economy. The particular focus of the project is to facilitate the use of ex-post prizes as a way to help fund agricultural innovation, complementing the other mechanisms now being used. A specific proposal for how to do this was detailed in a recent article in AgBioForum, and debated at numerous professional meetings this year including the NC-1003 meeting in St. Louis; the AAEA meetings in Montreal; the annual conference on the economics of biotechnology at Ravello, Italy, and another conference on economics of biotechnology at ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. The project also contributed significantly to the broader debate on how to improve the targeting and
implementation of agricultural R&D, organizing a major workshop held May 20-21 2004 at Columbia University on innovation in the life sciences, and another held March 29-30 also at Columbia on 'The State of the Planet'. All of these efforts helped to raise the profile and improve understanding of the agricultural technologies most needed to raise and stabilize living standards in the world's poorest and most unstable regions.
Impacts
This year's work offers a new approach to funding agricultural technology development and dissemination in low-income countries, using 'prizes' paid to innovators proportionally to the measured gains from farmers' adoption of new techniques. The expected impact of this approach is a more rapid flow of better-targeted innovations, alleviating poverty and stabilizing natural-resource use in the regions where innovation prizes are offered.
Publications
- Masters, W.A., 'Research Prizes: A Mechanism to Reward Agricultural Innovation in Low-Income Regions' (2003), AgBioForum 6(1&2): 71-74.
- Johnson, M.E. and W.A. Masters, 'Complementarity and Sequencing of Innovations' (2004), Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 13(1): 19-31.
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Progress 10/01/02 to 09/30/03
Outputs
Two papers were published this year. One, entitled 'An African Growth Trap', helps explain African government policies in terms of these countries' economic circumstances--suggesting that U.S. action to change their policies would require changing their circumstances. Another, entitled 'Investing in Soils', shows that West African farmers are more likely to undertake soil conservation improvements if they have more secure ownership of their lands.
Impacts
This year's work provides a convincing demonstration of the value of agricultural R&D, as opposed to other kinds of intervention aimed at alleviating extreme poverty in developing countries.
Publications
- McMillan, M.S. and W.A. Masters, 'An African Growth Trap: Production Technology and the Time-Consistency of Agricultural Taxation, R&D and Investment' (2003). Review of Development Economics, 7(3): 179-191.
- Kazianga, Harounan and W.A. Masters, 'Investing in Soils: Field Bunds and Microcatchments in Burkina Faso' (2002), Environment and Development Economics, 7(3): 571-591.
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Progress 10/01/01 to 09/30/02
Outputs
Research on this project in 2001-02 documented the extent to which Africa's local institutions constrain farmers' adoption of improved technologies. We find that poorly-defined property rights over cropland and grazing areas are a limiting factor in technology adoption and soil conservation, but that the increasing scarcity of land caused by population growth is forcing governments to define land use rights more explicitly, leading to faster adoption of important innovations.
Impacts
This research demonstrates the importance of secure property rights over cropland and grazing areas for sustainable agricultural productivity growth in Africa. More clearly defined property rights for farmers promote the adoption of improved techniques and reduce soil degradation. Changes within Africa are already causing this to occur. As a result, we can expect technology adoption and soil conservation efforts to rise in the future, improving agricultural productivity and economic conditions.
Publications
- H. Kazianga and W.A. Masters, "Investing in Soils: Field Bunds and Microcatchments in Burkina Faso" (2002), Environment and Development Economics, 7(3, July): 571-591.
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Progress 10/01/00 to 09/30/01
Outputs
New publications under this project have documented that: (a) more secure property rights combined with population growth have led African farmers to make greater investments in soil and water conservation, using well-known but labor-intensive methods (Kazianga and Masters 2001; Fisher, Warner and Masters 2000); (b) long-lived tree crops have attracted higher taxes and lower agricultural research investment than annual field crops, so regions that rely on tree crops will need new production technologies as well as new institutional arrangements to induce more efficient and equitable government policies (McMillan and Masters 2001); and (c) the absence of "hard" winter frosts has been associated with lower economic growth rates around the world, most likely because it is harder for people to control insect-borne diseases and harder for farmers to improve soils when there is year-round biotic activity; to improve economic prospects in tropical regions, more investment in
disease control and new agricultural techniques will be needed (Masters and McMillan 2001).
Impacts
Understanding why governments tend to impose heavier taxation and invest less in perennial tree crops than in annual field crops can help us build a more prosperous and secure global environment, raising farmers' incomes and improving the supply of raw materials from very low-income tropical regions such as West Africa; our work has been discussed at several professional meetings and is influencing the development of the Sustainable Tree Crops Program, a multi-million dollar partnership between USAID, the cocoa and coffee industries, and African governments. In addition, our findings that hard winter frosts play a significant role in economic growth has attracted widespread media attention, in the Times of London, the Toronto Star, ABCNews.com and the New Scientist website among others. Currently most economists believe that government policies and institutions, such as free trade and property rights, are the key to economic growth everywhere in the world, and the
foreign aid programs of industrialized countries focus on promoting institutional development; in contrast our findings highlight the need for more R&D investment, to develop the new technologies needed in tropical regions to improve public health and agricultural productivity.
Publications
- Masters, W.A. and M.S. McMillan, 2001. "Climate and Scale in Economic Growth", Journal of Economic Growth, 6(3, Sept.): 167-186.
- Fisher, M.G., R. Warner and W.A. Masters, 2000. "Gender and Agricultural Change: Crop-Livestock Interaction in Senegal," Society and Natural Resources, 13(3):203-222.
- Fisher, M.G., W.A. Masters and M. Sidibe, 2000. "Technical change in Senegals irrigated rice sector: impact assessment under uncertainty," Agricultural Economics, 24(2): 179-197..
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