Emeritus ProfessorColin Thirtle
Emeritus Professor
Centre for Environmental Policy - Faculty of Natural Sciences
- Emeritus ProfessorCentre for Environmental Policy - Faculty of Natural Sciences
- 020 7594 9337 (Work)
- 323, City and Guilds Building, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom
RESEARCH
Overview
My research has concentrated on the inter-related issues of agricultural R&D, technological change, efficiency and productivity growth, in developed countries, such as the USA the UK and the EU, in developing countries, including Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Nepal, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa and in transitional economies (Slovenia and Hungary). The work on R&D includes studying research systems, research resource allocation, privatisation the role of the private sector in R&D and the returns to agricultural R&D expenditures. The work on technological change covers the efficiency of new varieties, from the green revolution to GM crops, biodiversity, the economics of the terminator gene and induced innovation. Other work on efficiency has considered nitrate pollution in the UK, energy substitution in Hungary, land reform in Zimbabwe and the structural transformation in the transitional economies. Measures of total factor productivity growth were first developed for the UK, South Africa, Botswana and South Africa, Slovenia and Hungary. These have now been extended to cover all of Africa and Asia and have been applied to study convergence. The latest work for DFID covers the whole range, from R&D to productivity growth and then shows the effects on poverty alleviation. Current work on GM crops is focused on Bt cotton and both Bt and herbicide tolerant white maize in KwaZulu Natal.
Current Projects
ESRC/DfID Factor Endowments, Biased Technological Change, Wages and Poverty Reduction: Can Genetically Modified Crops Bring a Green Revolutio to Africa?
National Agricultural Marketing Council, Pretoria The Impact of Deregulation on Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency
Recent Projects
Have been funded by the ESRC, DfID, DEFRA, the Rockerfeller Foundation and Monsanto
My research has concentrated on the inter-related issues of agricultural R&D, technological change, efficiency and productivity growth, in developed countries, such as the USA the UK and the EU, in developing countries, including Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Nepal, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa and in transitional economies (Slovenia and Hungary). The work on R&D includes studying research systems, research resource allocation, privatisation the role of the private sector in R&D and the returns to agricultural R&D expenditures. The work on technological change covers the efficiency of new varieties, from the green revolution to GM crops, biodiversity, the economics of the terminator gene and induced innovation. Other work on efficiency has considered nitrate pollution in the UK, energy substitution in Hungary, land reform in Zimbabwe and the structural transformation in the transitional economies. Measures of total factor productivity growth were first developed for the UK, South Africa, Botswana and South Africa, Slovenia and Hungary. These have now been extended to cover all of Africa and Asia and have been applied to study convergence. The latest work for DFID covers the whole range, from R&D to productivity growth and then shows the effects on poverty alleviation. Current work on GM crops is focused on Bt cotton and both Bt and herbicide tolerant white maize in KwaZulu Natal.
Current Projects
ESRC/DfID Factor Endowments, Biased Technological Change, Wages and Poverty Reduction: Can Genetically Modified Crops Bring a Green Revolutio to Africa?
National Agricultural Marketing Council, Pretoria The Impact of Deregulation on Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency
Recent Projects
Have been funded by the ESRC, DfID, DEFRA, the Rockerfeller Foundation and Monsanto