TY  - JOUR
AU  - Olmstead,Alan L.
AU  - Rhode,Paul W.
TI  - Hog Round Marketing, Seed Quality, and Government Policy: Institutional Change in U.S. Cotton Production, 1920-1960
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9612
PY  - 2003
Y2  - April 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9612
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9612.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alan Olmstead
Alan L. Olmstead
1233 Fordham Dr.
Davis
CA 95616
Tel: 530-756-2395
E-Mail: alolmstead@ucdavis.edu

Paul Rhode
Economics Department
University of Michigan
205 Lorch Hall
611 Tappan St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
Tel: 734/647-5603
Fax: 734/764-2769
E-Mail: pwrhode@umich.edu
AB  - Between 1928 and 1960 U.S. cotton production witnessed a revolution with average yields roughly tripling while the quality of the crop increased significantly.  This paper analyzes the key institutional and scientific developments that facilitated the revolution in biological technologies, pointing to the importance of two government programs -- the one-variety community movement and the Smith-Doxey Act -- as catalysts for change.  The story displays two phenomena of interest in light of the recent literature: 1. an important real-world example of the workings of Akerlof's lemons model and 2. a case where inventors, during an early phase of the product cycle, actually encouraged consumers to copy and disseminate their intellectual property.
ER  -