Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Terry Kastens / The production of corn-based ethanol in the U.S. has increased from 1,630 million gallons in 2000 to 4,855 million gallons in 2006, representing a 198% growth over the period considered. This growth is favored by the availability of more efficient technologies in the production process of ethanol and is sustained by the high prices of ethanol in the market. The industry is also supported by a favorable public policy, expressed in the form of laws, mandating an increase in the use of ethanol, and also in the form of tax incentives. The tremendous increase in the use of corn for the ethanol industry is made at the expense of the livestock industry that was the traditional destination for much of the U.S. corn grain. As the ethanol industry continues to expand, concerns are raised in regard to its impact as more and more corn is diverted from the livestock sector. This study investigates the economic impact of the ethanol industry on the U.S. livestock sector. Specifically, a shipping cost model is developed to simulate the impact of the ethanol industry on the shipping cost of corn at the national and individual state levels. The dynamics for major livestock producing states are also analyzed at the crop reporting district level. Different scenarios based on assumptions on the availability of corn and the production capacities of the ethanol industry are displayed. Results from the model indicate that nationwide there is a 5 to 22% increase in the shipping cost of corn for the livestock industry due to the ethanol industry, depending on the scenario involved. At the state level, there is an increase in the transportation cost for most of the states, with shipping cost doubling in some cases. Nevertheless, some states benefit from the dynamics created by the development of ethanol plants and are experiencing a reduction in their livestock industry corn transportation cost.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / Interest in commercialization of university research has accelerated since the Bayh-Dole Act (1980) granted authority to universities and federally-funded nonprofit institutions, among others, to obtain patents, grant licenses, and transfer custody of patents with the explicit purpose of promoting the utilization and marketing of their inventions. This interest is supported by these institutions' need to expand their funding sources as growth in their traditional funding has lagged their needs. This study seeks to assess the level of understanding of research commercialization and entrepreneurship aspects by the faculty researchers nearly 10 years after Bayh-Dole Act using a survey of university faculty. The results show that there is indeed the desire to move research from universities to the marketplace through technology commercialization and entrepreneurship, but there is need for educational programs to enhance the current perceptions about the commercialization and entrepreneurship among faculty. We show that this need is independent of the demographic characteristics of faculty but influenced the university's policies covering intellectual property and commercialization.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / The promulgation of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, a declining share of federal research expenditures to the university, and the enforcement of intellectual property rights have contributed to the evolution of university research missions. This thesis sought to understand how the intellectual property policies and commercialization initiatives at research universities affect their commercialization activities and intensity. The ability of universities to engage in commercialization activities is dependent on the willingness of the researchers to disclose their inventions. We used cross-sectional data from AUTM (Association of University Technology Managers) and other sources to evaluate the effect universities intellectual property policies and other factors on faculty willingness to disclose their inventions and discoveries. The research revealed that universities' commercialization efforts have been intensifying over the years and across the institution. Intellectual property policies were found to have insignificant effect on the number of disclosures. This supports earlier research that has shown many faculty members were ignorant about such policies. On the other hand, licensing revenue, which basically goes to fund future research, was a very significant factor in disclosures and hence commercialization initiatives at universities.

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I examine the impact of policies toward agricultural globalization on growth patterns, distribution patterns, commercialization, and the supply response of peasant farmers by analyzing agriculture in the Telangana region of South India between 1985 and 2000. I perform growth computations between 1970 and 2000 for agriculture in this region, track distributional changes based on the National Sample Survey (NSS) data between 1985 and 2000 using non-parametric regression techniques, and estimate an econometric model of supply response for Telangana farmers. This empirical investigation leads to two puzzles—one in the supply response arena and the other in the distributional arena. First, even as the prices of market-oriented crops have declined between 1991 and 2000 (during the phase of globalization), the planted area and the output of these crops have been rising rapidly. Second, between 1985 and 2000, the annual exponential growth rate of real agricultural output in the Telangana region of South India has been more than 4%, higher than much of the developing world during the same period, even as a majority of the farming population has undergone significant income/consumption losses, tragically manifested in the suicides of more than a thousand farmers. I explain these puzzles first by studying the historical antecedents (1925–1985) of agrarian change in the region, then through a theoretical peasant economy model with a lien constraint that is similar to the model that Ransom and Sutch employed in the context of the post-bellum US South, and finally by analyzing village-level institutional mechanisms based on field research (2000–01) in the region. The main conclusion of the dissertation is that the globalization-induced decline in the prices of non-food output in conjunction with local informal lending practices that require these very non-food crops as collateral help explain the tragic puzzles. The policy implications are also analyzed in the dissertation.

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No description available.

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No description available.