Biological Innovation without Intellectual Property Rights: Cottonseed Markets in the Antebellum American South
研究了美国内战前南方在无知识产权保护下棉籽新品种市场的快速创新，发现初始高价提供了创新激励，但信息问题导致新品种过多。
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.