Biotechnology boosts to crop productivity in China: trade and welfare implications [An article from: Journal of Development Economics]

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Development Economics, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Genetically modified (GM) cotton is widely adopted and the list of GM technologies in trials is impressive in China. At the same time there is an active debate on when China should commercialize its GM food crops. This paper provides an economy-wide assessment of some of the issues surrounding the adoption and commercialization of biotechnology. Based on unique data from empirical micro-level study and field trials in China and a modified GTAP model, our results indicate that the development of biotechnology has an important impact on China's production, trade and welfare. Welfare gains far outweigh the public biotechnology research expenditures. Most gains occur inside China, and can be achieved independently from biotech-unfriendly polices adopted in some industrialized countries.