2021/01/11 by Paul W. Rhode
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #Advertising #Agribusiness #Agricultural economics #Agriculture #Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development #Biology #Biotechnology #Business #Cottonseed #Economics #Geography #Incentive #Intellectual Property and Patents #Intellectual property #Law #Market economy #Microeconomics #Newspaper #Political science #Property rights
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0022050720000662
openalex publication_date 2021/01/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
The Antebellum American South experienced rapid biological innovation centered around an active market for new cotton seed varieties, despite the absence of intellectual property rights. Contemporaries complained new seed was initially offered at high prices, which subsequently collapsed. Using local newspaper evidence, this paper documents this market’s operation. It then rationalizes the price movements given the potential of improved seed to multiply at finite rates. The initial prices were sufficiently high to provide meaningful incentives to innovate. This study also identifies information problems affecting the cotton seed market, leading observers to claim too many new varieties were released, not too few.