Property Rights on Biodiversity and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Chichilnisky, Graciela (1993): Property Rights on Biodiversity and the Pharmaceutical Industry. Published in: (1993)

Abstract

Major pharmaceutical companies such as Smith Kline Beecham, Merck, Glaxo and Lilly, and a score of smaller ones, are developing profitable business opportunities in the world's forest while preserving biodiversity and producing incentives for leaving the forests intact. This case study covers the business relationships between Merck and Co. and In Bio in Costa Rica, and the activities of Shaman Pharmaceuticals in Latin America and Africa. It provides the details, discusses what each party expects from these deals, and explores the connections with securitization and with issues of corporate responsibility towards the environment. The study explains the properties of externalities, which are typical of markets involving environmental assets, and the use of property rights in inducing efficient market solutions and corporate social responsibility.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: biodiversity; natural resources; case study; pharmaceuticals; developing countries; Central America; Latin America; South America; securitization; environmental assets; property rights; efficiency; market solutions; corporate responsibility; social; environmental; international partnership; financial markets
• Subjects: N - Economic History > N2 - Financial Markets and Institutions > N20 - General, International, or Comparative; P - Economic Systems > P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies > P26 - Political Economy ; Property Rights; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q57 - Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services ; Biodiversity Conservation ; Bioeconomics ; Industrial Ecology

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