Economic Efficiency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Economic Efficiency - Essay Example Using another angle, this paper also takes a look at research done within industrial organisations and related issues of economic efficiency, profits and lower costs, as also biotechnological changes, genetic resources and legal issues within economics and industrial settings. The focus however is on economic efficiency and resources that would be suitable within industrial organisations. This discussion would focus on an analysis of property rights, genetic resources and biotechnological changes considering the paper by Roger Sedjo (1992). In the paper Sedjo argues that genetic constitution of plants and animals would provide important information on development of natural products such as drugs and pharmaceuticals as well as the applications of biotechnology. The potential of genetic resources as repositories of genetic information has been immense. Many anticancer drugs have been developed from plants found in tropical forests and there is a lot of potential for such drugs. The st udy by Sedjo deals with wild genetic resources and their uses as well as biotechnological change, with genetic resources having elements of private and public goods. The protection and distribution of genetic resources is a major issue and closely associated with issues of property rights and public good. ... The property rights issues and the economics with regard to effective maintenance of wild and natural genetic resources could also be studied. Sedjo points out to the importance of social values in halting a process of extinction of genetic resources through habitat destruction and deforestation. Useful attributes are changed through biotechnological innovation in certain cases and certain developing countries have faced criticism for not appreciating the values of forests and biological diversity and for not protecting the forests and the environment. Genetic resources are considered both private and public and even considered as a store of knowledge. Genetic resources are however best analysed with R&D problems and variations. The economic efficiency of resources could be examined in terms of consumption as more one person consumes, the less resources are available to other people for consumption but this would be applicable to phenotypes of private goods. In case of genotypes or public goods, one person's consumption may not affect the amount available to others. However both genotypes or phenotypes can give consumption access to some individuals and exclude others. This according to Sedjo is applicable to property rights in case of improved varieties of plants and animals. So, how a sustainable environment and economic efficiency could be derived from wild plants and animals or genetic resources is understood in terms of three types of uses of wild plants and animals as such plants or animals could be consumed directly or can be a source of organic compounds. They can be used for the production of natural or herbal drugs. These plants and animals and their compounds could be used for the synthesis of chemicals and compounds