Product-level evidence of the determinants and impacts of public agricultural research: Panel analysis of plant patent data in Japan

Abstract

The public sector is an important source of agricultural research as many of the agricultural producers are individual farmers who cannot bear the cost of research and development. Public institutes for experimentation and research called Kosetsushi help producers in agriculture and manufacturing improve productivity through technology transfer activities, thereby constituting an important component of regional innovation systems in Japan. This study establishes panel data of agricultural research input and output (new variety of a plant) by Kosetsushi and examines whether their research activities are responsive to local needs and which type of research effort is conducive to the promotion of agricultural product innovation measured as registration of new varieties. Estimation results reveal significant variations across plants in the impacts of agricultural clusters on research on that plant. The impact of research on plant breeding on product innovation also varies across plants. Policy implications of the major findings are discussed.