This is an open access book. This edited volume discusses topics in environmental economics with a focus on sustainability, conservation, and responsible resource management. Written in memory of Peter Berck, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, the chapters expand upon his insights about the connections between human activities and the natural world. The volume includes a selection of research on agriculture, energy, forestry, fisheries, land use, recycling, and conservation – all parts of the broad question of how natural resources can meet human needs while avoiding environmental degradation. Written from a 21st century perspective, with concerns about climate, renewable energy, biodiversity, and sustainable development, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students of agricultural and resource economics.

This comparative study looks at the early development of biotechnology in the US and Japan. Drawing on primary and secondary sources it traces the historical roots of recombinant DNA technology, discusses the tensions between regulation and promotional policies and identifies the major actors and strategies that launched biotechnology in both countries. Developing several strands of theory in economic history, science and technology policy, the book proposes a simple model that relates the differences in the two countries' responses to variations in the availability of institutional, financial and organizational resources needed to commercialize the new technology.

How does IP balance the exclusive rights of innovators with public demand for access to their innovations? How can organizations manage IP strategically to meet their goals? How do IP strategies play out on the global stage? Driving Innovation reveals the dynamics of intellectual property (IP) as it drives the innovation cycle and shapes global society. The book presents fundamental IP concepts and practical legal and business strategies that apply to all innovation communities, including industry, non-profit institutions, and developing countries. Further, it draws on the author's broad experience, news headlines, and precedent-setting lawsuits relating to patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets - from biotechnology to the open source movement. General readers and students will welcome the lively overview of this complex topic, while executives and practitioners can gain new insights and valuable approaches for putting ideas to work and navigating within or changing the global IP system to expand innovation.

Warren Buffett is worth nearly $50 billion. Does he “deserve†all this money? Buffett himself will tell you that “society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I’ve earned.†Unjust Deserts offers an entirely new approach to the wealth question. In a lively synthesis of modern economic, technological, and cultural research, Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly demonstrate that up to 90 percent (and perhaps more) of current economic output derives not from individual ingenuity, effort, or investment but from our collective inheritance of scientific and technological knowledge: an inheritance we all receive as a “free lunch.†Alperovitz and Daly then pursue the implications of this research, persuasively arguing that there is no reason any one person should be entitled to that inheritance. Recognizing the true dimensions of our unearned inheritance leads inevitably to a new and powerful moral case for wealth redistribution—and to a series of practical policies to achieve it in an era when the disparities have become untenable.

Interest in the commercial value of genetic and biochemical resources is burgeoning. Virtually no precedent exists for policies and legislation to govern and regulate what amounts to a brand new industry. This report provides guidelines for establishing policies for biodiversity prospecting.