CFAES Give Today
AEDE

Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

CFAES

Research Highlights

 

research quality v/s chair type

Zhou's PhD research shows that intellectual property rights promote seed technology diffusion through exports

As part of her recently finished PhD dissertation, Minyu Zhou analyzes the question of whether intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection as offered therough the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement promotes or hinders the diffusion of US seed technology via exports. Her results consistently show that IPRs have a statistically significant effect on exports by the US seed industry.

McGuire's  PhD research shows that Chinese firms who adopt the ISO 14001 environmental standard actually do a better job of meeting Chinese environmental regulations

In his recently finished PhD dissertation, Will Mcguire analyzes the effects on Chinese firms of adoption of the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. Using data drawn from a survey of manufacturing firms in China, the results of his research indicate that ISO 14001 adoption increases compliance with environmental regulations - in other words, private certification systems can provide firms with an incentive to be more environmentally responsible.

Sheldon and Roe's research helps understand impact of US and European Union standards for organic foods

A recent story on NPR highlighted that the United States and the European Union have agreed to recognize each other's standards for production and marketing of organic food. The problem with organic food is that consumers cannot tell if it is really organic either before or after they consume it - as a result, government regulators such as the US Department of Agriculture establish standards for certifying and labeling food as truly "organic" so that consumers are not cheated by unscrupulous producers. However when it comes to international trade, how standards are harmonized between countries can have a significant impact on the benefits for consumers of organic food. In an article published in EconoQuantum in 2009 Ian Sheldon and Brian Roe showed that "mutual recognition" of each other's labeling standards results in more choice for consumers than if a single labeling standard is set - so the United States and European Union seem to have got it right on organic foods!