Innovation and dynamic efficiency in plant biotechnology: an introduction to the researchable issues

The agricultural biotechnology industry is characterized by heavy investment in research and development, dynamic technical change, and increasing concentration in both the output market and the ownership of intellectual properties that support ongoing innovation. This raises questions about the industry's ability to continue to deliver path-breaking innovations. This paper lays out these questions, describes the relevant data (including the newly available agricultural biotechnology intellectual property database), and provides a conceptual framework for addressing the questions. The empirical discussion and conceptual framework in this paper constitute a structure upon which the remaining articles in this issue build to address the overall question of how best we can maintain socially desirable rates of innovation and dynamic efficiency in plant biotechnology.