[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/16699.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Agricultural Biotechnology Boosts Food Supply and Accomodates Biofuels

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Sexton
  • David Zilberman
Abstract
Increased global demand for biofuels is placing increased pressure on agricultural systems at a time when traditional sources of yield improvements have been mostly exhausted, generating concerns about the future of food prices. This paper estimates the impact of global adoption of genetically engineered (GE) seeds on food supply by exploiting the spatial and temporal variation in the adoption of GE crops to identify the average yield effect due to GE technologies among adopters. The yield gains range from 65% for GE cotton to 12.4% for soybeans and appear to be higher in the developing world than in developed countries. The authors simulate food prices during the 2008 food crisis without GE-seed-induced yield gains. Genetically engineered crops appear to play an important role in arbitrating tensions between energy production, environmental protection, and global food supplies.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Sexton & David Zilberman, 2011. "How Agricultural Biotechnology Boosts Food Supply and Accomodates Biofuels," NBER Working Papers 16699, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16699
    Note: EEE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16699.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lence, Sergio H & Miller, Douglas J, 1998. "Estimation of Multi-output Production Functions with Incomplete Data: A Generalised Maximum Entropy Approach," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 25(2), pages 188-209.
    2. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2005. "Fixed-Effects and Related Estimators for Correlated Random-Coefficient and Treatment-Effect Panel Data Models," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 385-390, May.
    3. Benjamin Crost & Bhavani Shankar & Richard Bennett & Stephen Morse, 2007. "Bias from Farmer Self-Selection in Genetically Modified Crop Productivity Estimates: Evidence from Indian Data," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 24-36, February.
    4. Erik Lichtenberg & David Zilberman, 1986. "The Econometrics of Damage Control: Why Specification Matters," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 68(2), pages 261-273.
    5. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    6. Feder, Gershon & Just, Richard E & Zilberman, David, 1985. "Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 255-298, January.
    7. Richard E. Just & David Zilberman & Eithan Hochman & Ziv Bar-Shira, 1990. "Input Allocation in Multicrop Systems," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 72(1), pages 200-209.
    8. Matin Qaim, 2009. "The Economics of Genetically Modified Crops," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 665-694, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barrows, Geoffrey & Sexton, Steven & Zilberman, David, 2014. "The impact of agricultural biotechnology on supply and land-use," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(6), pages 676-703, December.
    2. Ladislav Kristoufek & Karel Janda & David Zilberman, 2015. "Co-movements of Ethanol Related Prices: Evidence from Brazil and the USA," CAMA Working Papers 2015-11, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Steven Sexton & David Zilberman, 2011. "Land for Food and Fuel Production: The Role of Agricultural Biotechnology," NBER Chapters, in: The Intended and Unintended Effects of US Agricultural and Biotechnology Policies, pages 269-288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Krishna, Vijesh V. & Qaim, Matin, 2012. "Bt cotton and sustainability of pesticide reductions in India," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 47-55.
    3. Xingliang Ma & Melinda Smale & David J. Spielman & Patricia Zambrano & Hina Nazli & Fatima Zaidi, 2017. "A Question of Integrity: Variants of Bt Cotton, Pesticides and Productivity in Pakistan," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 366-385, June.
    4. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    5. Mutuc, Maria Erlinda M. & Rejesus, Roderick M. & Pan, Suwen & Yorobe, Jose M., Jr., 2012. "Impact Assessment of Bt Corn Adoption in the Philippines," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 44(1), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Sloczynski, Tymon, 2018. "A General Weighted Average Representation of the Ordinary and Two-Stage Least Squares Estimands," IZA Discussion Papers 11866, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Enid M. Katungi & Catherine Larochelle & Josephat R. Mugabo & Robin Buruchara, 2018. "The effect of climbing bean adoption on the welfare of smallholder common bean growers in Rwanda," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(1), pages 61-79, February.
    8. Ogada, Maurice & Nyangena, Wilfred, 2015. "Impact of Improved Farm Technologies on Yields: The Case of Improved Maize Varieties and Inorganic Fertilizers in Kenya," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212590, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Franklin Simtowe & Paswel Marenya & Emily Amondo & Mosisa Worku & Dil Bahadur Rahut & Olaf Erenstein, 2019. "Heterogeneous seed access and information exposure: implications for the adoption of drought-tolerant maize varieties in Uganda," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Chad D. Meyerhoefer & Muzhe Yang, 2011. "The Relationship between Food Assistance and Health: A Review of the Literature and Empirical Strategies for Identifying Program Effects," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 304-344.
    11. Tamini, Lota D., 2011. "A nonparametric analysis of the impact of agri-environmental advisory activities on best management practice adoption: A case study of Québec," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1363-1374, May.
    12. Balaine, Lorraine & Dillon, Emma J. & Läpple, Doris & Lynch, John, 2020. "Can technology help achieve sustainable intensification? Evidence from milk recording on Irish dairy farms," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Davis, K. & Nkonya, E. & Kato, E. & Mekonnen, D.A. & Odendo, M. & Miiro, R. & Nkuba, J., 2012. "Impact of Farmer Field Schools on Agricultural Productivity and Poverty in East Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 402-413.
    14. Kate Vaiknoras & Catherine Larochelle, 2023. "Training and seed production spillovers and technology adoption: The case of seed producer groups in Nepal," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(6), pages 921-942, November.
    15. Matty Demont & Marie Cerovska & Wim Daems & Koen Dillen & József Fogarasi & Erik Mathijs & František Muška & Josef Soukup & Eric Tollens, 2008. "Ex Ante Impact Assessment under Imperfect Information: Biotechnology in New Member States of the EU," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 463-486, September.
    16. Wakeyo, Mekonnen B. & Gardebroek, Cornelis, 2013. "Does water harvesting induce fertilizer use among smallholders? Evidence from Ethiopia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 54-63.
    17. Sanglestsawai, Santi & Rodriguez, Divina Gracia P. & Rejesus, Roderick M. & Yorobe, Jose M., 2017. "Production Risk, Farmer Welfare, and Bt Corn in the Philippines," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 507-528, December.
    18. Auci, Sabrina & Pronti, Andrea, 2023. "Irrigation technology adaptation for a sustainable agriculture: A panel endogenous switching analysis on the Italian farmland productivity," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Arndt, Channing & Benfica, Rui & Tarp, Finn & Thurlow, James & Uaiene, Rafael, 2010. "Biofuels, poverty, and growth: a computable general equilibrium analysis of Mozambique," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 81-105, February.
    20. Tymon S{l}oczy'nski, 2018. "Interpreting OLS Estimands When Treatment Effects Are Heterogeneous: Smaller Groups Get Larger Weights," Papers 1810.01576, arXiv.org, revised May 2020.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16699. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.