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Since the 1980s agricultural biotech investments by the public sector have increased substantially in both China and India. In the last two decades there has also been a dramatic increase in private section investment in agricultural biotechnology particularly in India. The promise of major benefits of Bt cotton identified in early socioeconomic studies of Bt cotton has proven to be true. Bt cotton has spread to at least 66% and 85% of total cotton areas of China and India, respectively – wherever bollworm is a major problem. Bt cotton continues to control bollworm in both countries, and farmers continue as major beneficiaries rather than biotech or seed companies. The major impacts have been yield increases in India and reduced pesticides consumption in China. In China, evidence also suggests that Bt cotton has suppressed the bollworm population so that non-Bt cotton growers and producers of other crops that are susceptible to bollworm are also benefitting.

The chapter also provides evidence that in the near future Bt rice and Bt eggplant could have major positive impacts by reducing pesticide use and farmers’ exposure to chemical pesticides and increasing yields. Both crops were approved for commercial production by government biosafety regulators, but are not yet available for commercial cultivation.

Through the media it is clear that the number of people who are openly identifying as transgender is growing. Some of those people who are identified as transgender are adults but many times they are younger and sometimes young children (under the age of eight). As young children are sharing with family and school personnel that their gender and the assigned gender at birth are not an exact match, families and school personnel need the tools to support these children. Since most teacher training programs do not currently have preparation in working with children who are transgender or gender fluid, it is up to teachers and administrators to seek out materials and resources until such time as teacher preparation programs include this in the curriculum. In this chapter, the author shares basic terminology, ideas about changing curriculum, language, and environment in early childhood settings to help welcome young children who are transgender or gender fluid into these spaces. In addition, possible questions children and adults may ask are included along with resources and books about people who are transgender that are age appropriate for early childhood settings.

This chapter presents a Bayesian analysis of the endogenous treatment model with misclassified treatment participation. Our estimation procedure utilizes a combination of data augmentation, Gibbs sampling, and Metropolis–Hastings to obtain estimates of the misclassification probabilities and the treatment effect. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed Bayesian estimator accurately estimates the treatment effect in light of misclassification and endogeneity.

Purpose – The objective of this chapter is to examine and provide new perspectives on the contributions of public and private R&D to biotech crop improvement.

Methodology/approach – The chapter examines a set of topics that have affected the way that research is undertaken on plant germplasm improvement and how it has changed with the genetically modified (GM) trait revolution.

Findings – Although the basic science providing the foundations for GM crops was undertaken in the public sector, GM traits and GM crop varieties have been developed almost exclusively by the private sector. The biotech events leading to GM traits are currently being developed largely by five companies – all having ties to both the chemical and the seed industries. The GM crop revolution started in North American in 1996 and has spread slowly to the largest developing countries that have large agricultural sectors, including Argentina, China, Brazil, and India, but not to Europe or Japan.

Practical implication – To shed new light on the economic reasons for private sector dominance in GM crop varietal development in selected crops but not in others.

Social implication – Shows how GM traits have contributed to technical change and declining real food prices.