Genetic Resource Libraries: Bioprospecting and Knowledge Assets¤

The article examines the incentives facing owners of genetic resource collections to invest in collecting data about their materials. Characterization converts an unordered collection of materials into a cataloged library. Researchers ̄lter these data through models that suggest how well observed characteristics correlate with potential success in R&D projects. The catalog enables the manufacture of variance in the researcher's distribution of beliefs regarding the utility of di®erent leads. It allows her to focus her search on promising subsets of the collection, increasing the e±ciency of research. Because \cataloged" leads are more likely to land in the upper tail of this distribution, they are more likely to be tested and, thus, are more likely ¤Gordon C. Rausser is Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Califoria at Berkeley; and Member, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. Arthur A. Small, III, is Assistant Professor in the School of International and Public A®airs at Columbia University. For thoughtful comments and suggestions we thank, without attributing either endorsement or blame: Christopher Costello, Geo® Heal, Steve Polasky, David Simpson, and workshop participants at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, California. Correspondence to: Arthur A. Small, Columbia University SIPA, 420 West 118th Street, Mail Code 3323, New York, NY 10027, USA; tel: 1-212-854-9016; fax: 1-212-854-5765; email: [email protected]; web: www.columbia.edu/~aas69.