Koen Dillen | Joint Research Centre (original) (raw)
Papers by Koen Dillen
status: published, Jan 1, 2010
Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit de... more Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden vermenigvuldigd en/of openbaar gemaakt worden door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm, elektronisch of op welke andere wijze ook zonder voorafgaandelijke schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm, electronic or any other means without written permission from the publisher. Legal Deposit Number: D/2010/11.109/25 Preface And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels--Voyage to Brobdingnag Four years…four exciting years leading up to this doctoral degree. Four years of ample intellectual freedom and curiosity. Four years that led me to interesting places and situations. Four years with ups and downs. Four years that profoundly enriched my life. But above all, four years in which I met, interacted with and relied on fantastic people. These are the people I want to dedicate this preface to. First of all, I would like to thank my promoter, Professor Eric Tollens, for his trust in the fact that I would make this doctorate work. Something I wasn't sure of myself at the beginning. During the growth process of this doctorate, he proved to be a valuable mentor, guided me around in the miraculous world of academics, and convinced me of the practical implications of our work. A second word of gratitude goes to the members of the Examination Committee. Professors Mathijs, Merckx and Vanderleyden, for proofreading my manuscript and providing their valuable comments. A special thank goes to Professor Wesseler as he was there during the whole process of the doctorate. We attended the same conferences, discussed research topics and he welcomed me at the University of Wageningen for workshops and meetings. Now, before you think I forgot you, the time has come to thank you. Yes Matty, I'm addressing you in second person to capture your attention. During the first eight months of the doctorate, I had the honor to occupy the office next to Dr. Demont. You introduced me to the interesting world of agricultural biotechnology and the methodologies for impact assessments. Near the end of your stay at the Division for
… of GM-Crop Cultivation at Large …, Jan 1, 2008
Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit de... more Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden vermenigvuldigd en/of openbaar gemaakt worden door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm, elektronisch of op welke andere wijze ook zonder voorafgaandelijke schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm, electronic or any other means without written permission from the publisher. Legal Deposit Number: D/2010/11.109/25 Preface And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels--Voyage to Brobdingnag Four years…four exciting years leading up to this doctoral degree. Four years of ample intellectual freedom and curiosity. Four years that led me to interesting places and situations. Four years with ups and downs. Four years that profoundly enriched my life. But above all, four years in which I met, interacted with and relied on fantastic people. These are the people I want to dedicate this preface to. First of all, I would like to thank my promoter, Professor Eric Tollens, for his trust in the fact that I would make this doctorate work. Something I wasn't sure of myself at the beginning. During the growth process of this doctorate, he proved to be a valuable mentor, guided me around in the miraculous world of academics, and convinced me of the practical implications of our work. A second word of gratitude goes to the members of the Examination Committee. Professors Mathijs, Merckx and Vanderleyden, for proofreading my manuscript and providing their valuable comments. A special thank goes to Professor Wesseler as he was there during the whole process of the doctorate. We attended the same conferences, discussed research topics and he welcomed me at the University of Wageningen for workshops and meetings. Now, before you think I forgot you, the time has come to thank you. Yes Matty, I'm addressing you in second person to capture your attention. During the first eight months of the doctorate, I had the honor to occupy the office next to Dr. Demont. You introduced me to the interesting world of agricultural biotechnology and the methodologies for impact assessments. Near the end of your stay at the Division for
http://www.biw.kuleuven.be/aee/clo/euwab.htm
… Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, …, Jan 1, 2007
status: published, Jan 1, 2009
KULeuven. ...
status: published, Jan 1, 2008
Country Crop Year Adoption Global valuea Global benefit sharing (%)(m )()()(/ha) Input supp Domesti... more Country Crop Year Adoption Global valuea Global benefit sharing (%)(m )()()(/ha) Input supp Domestic farmers Domestic consumers Net ROW Canadab HT canola 2000 54% 209 80 67% 19% 14%. USAc HT soybean 1997 17% 1,062 202 10% 76% 4% 9% USAd HT ...
… Congress, August 26- …, Jan 1, 2008
The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modif... more The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops in all member states. While it stresses that any approach needs to be "proportionate to the aim of achieving coexistence", very few studies have actually attempted to assess whether the proposed spatial ex ante coexistence regulations (SEACERs) satisfy this proportionality condition. In this article, we define proportionality as a functional relationship which is weakly increasing in the incentives for coexistence. We propose a spatial framework based on an existing landscape and introduce the new concept of shadow factor as a measure for the opportunity costs induced by SEACERs. This enables comparing the proportionality of (i) rigid SEACERs which are based on large isolation distances imposed on GM farmers versus (ii) flexible SEACERs based on pollen barrier agreements between neighboring farmers. Our theoretical and empirical findings argue for flexibility as rigid SEACERs violate the proportionality condition and, hence, are not consistent with the objectives of the EU.
The effects of the EU sugar reform on the farmer have been well documented in recent years. Howev... more The effects of the EU sugar reform on the farmer have been well documented in recent years. However, few studies have compared the impact on the sugar industries and competing industries like isoglucose and inuline syrup. First step was to investigate the industrial sugar market and the competitive position of the different sectors. The purpose of this article was to compare the profitability of the different sectors by the use of gross margins. It is found that gross margins of efficient sugar producers are still sufficient under the new regime, making the cut in sugar production smaller than the European Union expected. The gross margins for isoglucose and inuline syrup decrease much more, making it a difficult situation to keep on producing.
109th Seminar of …, Jan 1, 2008
Beef and pig production are important sectors affected by the cross-compliance policy. Full compl... more Beef and pig production are important sectors affected by the cross-compliance policy. Full compliance with SMRs and GAECs generates costs and benefits which may have an impact on the competitiveness of these sectors on the world market. Compliance with the Nitrate Directive, animal identification and registration requirements and animal welfare standards can give rise to non-negligible cost of production increases at individual farm level and at sector level. Additional costs can be relevant either due to a low degree of compliance or by significant adjustments costs at farm level. Full compliance generates a level playing field between Member States of the EU, as some countries have to face higher additional costs than others, which are be attributed to differences in degree of compliance.
International sugar journal, Jan 1, 2008
European Association …, Jan 1, 2008
Best-estimates of compliance are used from the existing literature and expert judgements. The neg... more Best-estimates of compliance are used from the existing literature and expert judgements. The negative impact of these measures (for nitrates, and animal identification and registration) on EU imports and exports are less than 3 percent. If a smaller increase in compliance takes place, these already relatively small trade impacts will be further diminished. When the standards for nitrate pollution taken by the US and New Zealand are taken into account along with full compliance assumption in all countries analysed, this would only slightly improve the EU exports. The trade impacts obtained when no changes are assumed to happen in key competitor countries can thus be argued as providing the upper bound of the likely trade impacts.
CITATIONS 6 READS 23 3 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these... more CITATIONS 6 READS 23 3 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Preparing African Rice Farmers Against Parasitic Weeds in a Changing Environment (PARASITE) View project BMZ-IRRI Rice straw management View project Koen Dillen European Commision
In ex-ante impact assessment of proprietary seed technologies, the assessor operates under scarce... more In ex-ante impact assessment of proprietary seed technologies, the assessor operates under scarce and imperfect data. No market has been established for the new technology and adoption has yet to take place. Recently, the scholarly literature has focused on the importance of accounting for heterogeneity among potential adopters to avoid homogeneity bias in the impact estimates. In this article, we argue that incorporation of heterogeneity in the corporate pricing strategy of the innovation is also needed to avoid a second bias in the welfare estimatespricing bias. Therefore, a framework is developed which explicitly incorporates heterogeneity of proprietary seed technology valuation among adopters in both the pricing decision and the impact assessment. The results explain the tendency of innovators to engage in third-degree price discrimination if the market structure discourages arbitrage. Finally, the model is applied on the case study of herbicide-resistant sugar beet in the EU-27.
Journal of applied …, Jan 1, 2010
Pest management …, Jan 1, 2010
Communications in agricultural and …, Jan 1, 2007
After more than a decade of GM crops, literature reports farmers and consumers can gain significa... more After more than a decade of GM crops, literature reports farmers and consumers can gain significantly from the technology, despite the intellectual property rights assigned to the innovator. In this paper we assess the effect of heterogeneity on this distribution of benefits. A two dimensional framework is created to assess the ex ante benefits of an innovation. Given this setting and the scarce data often available, a parametric modelling approach is taken. The two dimensions of heterogeneity, spatial and temporal, are explicitly modelled as they have a different importance for different technologies. Using this framework we can simulate different corporate pricing strategies and evaluate the benefits generated under changing heterogeneity. The framework is tested on the introduction of HT sugar beet in the EU-27.
Canadian Journal of …, Jan 1, 2008
In this article, we study the incentives for adoption of new technologies before and after the po... more In this article, we study the incentives for adoption of new technologies before and after the policy reform. We build a stochastic partial equilibrium model and use it to analyze the effect of the policy reform on the adoption incentives of genetically modified herbicide tolerant sugar beet. Our findings show that the adoption incentives of high-cost sugar beet farmers are significantly reduced under the new CMO. Medium-cost producers, in contrast, have greater incentives to adopt new technologies, while low-cost producers are largely left unaffected. The reduced adoption incentives of high-cost farmers lead to lower flexibility and competitiveness of these farmers and therefore coincides with the goals of the reform to crowd out high-cost producers and increase competitiveness of the European sugar market.
Food Policy, Jan 1, 2009
The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modif... more The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops in all member states. While it stresses that any approach needs to be "proportionate to the aim of achieving coexistence", very few studies have actually attempted to assess whether the proposed spatial ex ante coexistence regulations (SEACERs) satisfy this proportionality condition. In this article, we propose a spatial framework based on an existing landscape and introduce the concept of shadow factor as a measure for the opportunity costs induced by SEACERs. Our empirical findings led us to advance the proposition that flexible SEACERs based on pollen barriers are more likely to respect the proportionality condition than rigid SEACERs based on isolation distances. Particularly in early adoption stages, imposing rigid SEACERs may substantially slow down GM crop adoption. Our findings argue for incorporating a certain degree of flexibility into SEACERs by advising pollen barrier agreements between farmers rather than imposing rigid isolation distances on GM farmers. The empirical questions of proportionality and flexibility have been largely ignored in the literature on coexistence and provide timely information for EU policy makers.
Journal of …, Jan 1, 2008
Some argue that the lack of modern agricultural development in the former socialist countries of ... more Some argue that the lack of modern agricultural development in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe has made cutting-edge biotechnology attractive. However, enthusiasm for planting genetically modified (GM) crops varies greatly in the enlarged European Union (EU) and especially among the New Member States (NMS); the Czech GM maize area is progressively growing whereas Hungary imposed a de facto ban on GM crops. Remarkably, the Hungarian ban was not supported by any cost-benefit assessment. In the literature, ex ante impact assessments of monopolistically priced technologies are often based on cross-sectional comparisons of average cropping budgets. Such assessments ignore heterogeneity of farmers and underestimate the true impact of these technologies because of homogeneity bias. Therefore, we propose an improved method by explicitly modelling farmer heterogeneity under imperfect information, and assess the potential value and benefit sharing of GM crops in 1 Matty Demont is with the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), B.P. 96, Saint-Louis, Senegal.
status: published, Jan 1, 2010
Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit de... more Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden vermenigvuldigd en/of openbaar gemaakt worden door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm, elektronisch of op welke andere wijze ook zonder voorafgaandelijke schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm, electronic or any other means without written permission from the publisher. Legal Deposit Number: D/2010/11.109/25 Preface And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels--Voyage to Brobdingnag Four years…four exciting years leading up to this doctoral degree. Four years of ample intellectual freedom and curiosity. Four years that led me to interesting places and situations. Four years with ups and downs. Four years that profoundly enriched my life. But above all, four years in which I met, interacted with and relied on fantastic people. These are the people I want to dedicate this preface to. First of all, I would like to thank my promoter, Professor Eric Tollens, for his trust in the fact that I would make this doctorate work. Something I wasn't sure of myself at the beginning. During the growth process of this doctorate, he proved to be a valuable mentor, guided me around in the miraculous world of academics, and convinced me of the practical implications of our work. A second word of gratitude goes to the members of the Examination Committee. Professors Mathijs, Merckx and Vanderleyden, for proofreading my manuscript and providing their valuable comments. A special thank goes to Professor Wesseler as he was there during the whole process of the doctorate. We attended the same conferences, discussed research topics and he welcomed me at the University of Wageningen for workshops and meetings. Now, before you think I forgot you, the time has come to thank you. Yes Matty, I'm addressing you in second person to capture your attention. During the first eight months of the doctorate, I had the honor to occupy the office next to Dr. Demont. You introduced me to the interesting world of agricultural biotechnology and the methodologies for impact assessments. Near the end of your stay at the Division for
… of GM-Crop Cultivation at Large …, Jan 1, 2008
Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit de... more Doctoraatsschool, W. de Croylaan 6, 3001 Heverlee, België Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden vermenigvuldigd en/of openbaar gemaakt worden door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm, elektronisch of op welke andere wijze ook zonder voorafgaandelijke schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm, electronic or any other means without written permission from the publisher. Legal Deposit Number: D/2010/11.109/25 Preface And he gave it for his opinion, "that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels--Voyage to Brobdingnag Four years…four exciting years leading up to this doctoral degree. Four years of ample intellectual freedom and curiosity. Four years that led me to interesting places and situations. Four years with ups and downs. Four years that profoundly enriched my life. But above all, four years in which I met, interacted with and relied on fantastic people. These are the people I want to dedicate this preface to. First of all, I would like to thank my promoter, Professor Eric Tollens, for his trust in the fact that I would make this doctorate work. Something I wasn't sure of myself at the beginning. During the growth process of this doctorate, he proved to be a valuable mentor, guided me around in the miraculous world of academics, and convinced me of the practical implications of our work. A second word of gratitude goes to the members of the Examination Committee. Professors Mathijs, Merckx and Vanderleyden, for proofreading my manuscript and providing their valuable comments. A special thank goes to Professor Wesseler as he was there during the whole process of the doctorate. We attended the same conferences, discussed research topics and he welcomed me at the University of Wageningen for workshops and meetings. Now, before you think I forgot you, the time has come to thank you. Yes Matty, I'm addressing you in second person to capture your attention. During the first eight months of the doctorate, I had the honor to occupy the office next to Dr. Demont. You introduced me to the interesting world of agricultural biotechnology and the methodologies for impact assessments. Near the end of your stay at the Division for
http://www.biw.kuleuven.be/aee/clo/euwab.htm
… Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, …, Jan 1, 2007
status: published, Jan 1, 2009
KULeuven. ...
status: published, Jan 1, 2008
Country Crop Year Adoption Global valuea Global benefit sharing (%)(m )()()(/ha) Input supp Domesti... more Country Crop Year Adoption Global valuea Global benefit sharing (%)(m )()()(/ha) Input supp Domestic farmers Domestic consumers Net ROW Canadab HT canola 2000 54% 209 80 67% 19% 14%. USAc HT soybean 1997 17% 1,062 202 10% 76% 4% 9% USAd HT ...
… Congress, August 26- …, Jan 1, 2008
The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modif... more The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops in all member states. While it stresses that any approach needs to be "proportionate to the aim of achieving coexistence", very few studies have actually attempted to assess whether the proposed spatial ex ante coexistence regulations (SEACERs) satisfy this proportionality condition. In this article, we define proportionality as a functional relationship which is weakly increasing in the incentives for coexistence. We propose a spatial framework based on an existing landscape and introduce the new concept of shadow factor as a measure for the opportunity costs induced by SEACERs. This enables comparing the proportionality of (i) rigid SEACERs which are based on large isolation distances imposed on GM farmers versus (ii) flexible SEACERs based on pollen barrier agreements between neighboring farmers. Our theoretical and empirical findings argue for flexibility as rigid SEACERs violate the proportionality condition and, hence, are not consistent with the objectives of the EU.
The effects of the EU sugar reform on the farmer have been well documented in recent years. Howev... more The effects of the EU sugar reform on the farmer have been well documented in recent years. However, few studies have compared the impact on the sugar industries and competing industries like isoglucose and inuline syrup. First step was to investigate the industrial sugar market and the competitive position of the different sectors. The purpose of this article was to compare the profitability of the different sectors by the use of gross margins. It is found that gross margins of efficient sugar producers are still sufficient under the new regime, making the cut in sugar production smaller than the European Union expected. The gross margins for isoglucose and inuline syrup decrease much more, making it a difficult situation to keep on producing.
109th Seminar of …, Jan 1, 2008
Beef and pig production are important sectors affected by the cross-compliance policy. Full compl... more Beef and pig production are important sectors affected by the cross-compliance policy. Full compliance with SMRs and GAECs generates costs and benefits which may have an impact on the competitiveness of these sectors on the world market. Compliance with the Nitrate Directive, animal identification and registration requirements and animal welfare standards can give rise to non-negligible cost of production increases at individual farm level and at sector level. Additional costs can be relevant either due to a low degree of compliance or by significant adjustments costs at farm level. Full compliance generates a level playing field between Member States of the EU, as some countries have to face higher additional costs than others, which are be attributed to differences in degree of compliance.
International sugar journal, Jan 1, 2008
European Association …, Jan 1, 2008
Best-estimates of compliance are used from the existing literature and expert judgements. The neg... more Best-estimates of compliance are used from the existing literature and expert judgements. The negative impact of these measures (for nitrates, and animal identification and registration) on EU imports and exports are less than 3 percent. If a smaller increase in compliance takes place, these already relatively small trade impacts will be further diminished. When the standards for nitrate pollution taken by the US and New Zealand are taken into account along with full compliance assumption in all countries analysed, this would only slightly improve the EU exports. The trade impacts obtained when no changes are assumed to happen in key competitor countries can thus be argued as providing the upper bound of the likely trade impacts.
CITATIONS 6 READS 23 3 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these... more CITATIONS 6 READS 23 3 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Preparing African Rice Farmers Against Parasitic Weeds in a Changing Environment (PARASITE) View project BMZ-IRRI Rice straw management View project Koen Dillen European Commision
In ex-ante impact assessment of proprietary seed technologies, the assessor operates under scarce... more In ex-ante impact assessment of proprietary seed technologies, the assessor operates under scarce and imperfect data. No market has been established for the new technology and adoption has yet to take place. Recently, the scholarly literature has focused on the importance of accounting for heterogeneity among potential adopters to avoid homogeneity bias in the impact estimates. In this article, we argue that incorporation of heterogeneity in the corporate pricing strategy of the innovation is also needed to avoid a second bias in the welfare estimatespricing bias. Therefore, a framework is developed which explicitly incorporates heterogeneity of proprietary seed technology valuation among adopters in both the pricing decision and the impact assessment. The results explain the tendency of innovators to engage in third-degree price discrimination if the market structure discourages arbitrage. Finally, the model is applied on the case study of herbicide-resistant sugar beet in the EU-27.
Journal of applied …, Jan 1, 2010
Pest management …, Jan 1, 2010
Communications in agricultural and …, Jan 1, 2007
After more than a decade of GM crops, literature reports farmers and consumers can gain significa... more After more than a decade of GM crops, literature reports farmers and consumers can gain significantly from the technology, despite the intellectual property rights assigned to the innovator. In this paper we assess the effect of heterogeneity on this distribution of benefits. A two dimensional framework is created to assess the ex ante benefits of an innovation. Given this setting and the scarce data often available, a parametric modelling approach is taken. The two dimensions of heterogeneity, spatial and temporal, are explicitly modelled as they have a different importance for different technologies. Using this framework we can simulate different corporate pricing strategies and evaluate the benefits generated under changing heterogeneity. The framework is tested on the introduction of HT sugar beet in the EU-27.
Canadian Journal of …, Jan 1, 2008
In this article, we study the incentives for adoption of new technologies before and after the po... more In this article, we study the incentives for adoption of new technologies before and after the policy reform. We build a stochastic partial equilibrium model and use it to analyze the effect of the policy reform on the adoption incentives of genetically modified herbicide tolerant sugar beet. Our findings show that the adoption incentives of high-cost sugar beet farmers are significantly reduced under the new CMO. Medium-cost producers, in contrast, have greater incentives to adopt new technologies, while low-cost producers are largely left unaffected. The reduced adoption incentives of high-cost farmers lead to lower flexibility and competitiveness of these farmers and therefore coincides with the goals of the reform to crowd out high-cost producers and increase competitiveness of the European sugar market.
Food Policy, Jan 1, 2009
The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modif... more The EU is currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations on genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops in all member states. While it stresses that any approach needs to be "proportionate to the aim of achieving coexistence", very few studies have actually attempted to assess whether the proposed spatial ex ante coexistence regulations (SEACERs) satisfy this proportionality condition. In this article, we propose a spatial framework based on an existing landscape and introduce the concept of shadow factor as a measure for the opportunity costs induced by SEACERs. Our empirical findings led us to advance the proposition that flexible SEACERs based on pollen barriers are more likely to respect the proportionality condition than rigid SEACERs based on isolation distances. Particularly in early adoption stages, imposing rigid SEACERs may substantially slow down GM crop adoption. Our findings argue for incorporating a certain degree of flexibility into SEACERs by advising pollen barrier agreements between farmers rather than imposing rigid isolation distances on GM farmers. The empirical questions of proportionality and flexibility have been largely ignored in the literature on coexistence and provide timely information for EU policy makers.
Journal of …, Jan 1, 2008
Some argue that the lack of modern agricultural development in the former socialist countries of ... more Some argue that the lack of modern agricultural development in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe has made cutting-edge biotechnology attractive. However, enthusiasm for planting genetically modified (GM) crops varies greatly in the enlarged European Union (EU) and especially among the New Member States (NMS); the Czech GM maize area is progressively growing whereas Hungary imposed a de facto ban on GM crops. Remarkably, the Hungarian ban was not supported by any cost-benefit assessment. In the literature, ex ante impact assessments of monopolistically priced technologies are often based on cross-sectional comparisons of average cropping budgets. Such assessments ignore heterogeneity of farmers and underestimate the true impact of these technologies because of homogeneity bias. Therefore, we propose an improved method by explicitly modelling farmer heterogeneity under imperfect information, and assess the potential value and benefit sharing of GM crops in 1 Matty Demont is with the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), B.P. 96, Saint-Louis, Senegal.