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William Henri Lesser

Susan Eckert Lynch Professor of Science and Business

Primary Research Areas

  • agricultural biotechnology
  • applied economics
  • biodiversity
  • biotechnology
  • international agriculture
  • transgenic plants

Graduate Fields

Research Focus

My inter-related research focus includes (a) the effects of agbiotechnology on producers and consumers, notably in developing economies, (b) the functioning of intellectual property rights within those systems, and (c) the affects of new IPR systems like Geographic Indications on producers and consumers.

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1978
  • M.S., University of Rhode Island, 1974
  • B.A., University of Washington, 1968

Selected Publications

PubMed Listings

Lesser, W., and M. A. Mutschler. 2004. Balancing Investment Incentives and Social Benefits when Protecting Plant Varieties: Implementing Initial Variety Systems. Crop Science 44:1113-20.

Lesser, W., and T. Lybbert. 2004. Do Patents Come Too Easy?. IDEA: The Journal of Law and Technology 44(3):381-409.

Lesser, W. 2003. Intellectual Property Rights in Agriculture. From a Crop Science Society Conference sponsored by the Farm Foundation, CD-ROM.

Lesser, W. 2002. The Effects of Intellectual Property Rights on Foreign Direct Investments and Imports into Developing Countries in the Post-TRIPs Era. Ithaca, NY, http://www.biodevelopments.org/ip/index.htm.

Lesser, W., T. M. Schmit, and L. M. Ruiz. 2001. Pricing elite germplasm for GMOs by developing countries: A method and application to Brazil. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review.

Lesser, W. 2000. Intellectual property rights under the Convention on Biological Diversity. In Agriculture and intellectual property rights, edited by V. Santiello, R. E. Evenson, D. Zilberman, and G. A. Carlson. London: CABI.

Lesser, W. 2000. An economic approach to identifying an "effective sui generis system" for plant variety protection under TRIPS. Agribusiness 16 (1):96-114.

Lesser, W. 2000. Plant breeders' rights. (For controlled access to the ISAAA web site, contact ip-tt@isaaa.org)

Lesser, W. 2000. Transitions in agbiotech: Economics of strategy and policy. Storrs, CT: Food Marketing Policy Center.

Lesser, W. 1999. Export marketing: An introductory guide. CD-ROM.

Lesser, W., J. Bernard, and K. Billah. 1999. Methodologies for ex ante projections of adoption rates for agbiotech products: Lessons learned from rBST. Agribusiness 15 (2): 149-62.

Lesser, W. 1998. Sustainable use of genetic resources under the convention on biological diversity: Exploring access and benefit sharing issues. London: CABI.