Vernon W. Ruttan. Agricultural Research Policy. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. 1982. xiv + 369 pp.Price: $ 13 .95 paper back.

This book makes an important contribution to the literature on the development and transfer of new technology for profitable farming the world over. Professor Ruttan has had a distinguished career in research and its administration in a number of institutions. He brings that experience to bear on his analysis of a variety of issues in agricultural research. While much of the material contained in the book has already appeared in his earlier writings, it is well organized here around three themes. The rust is the induced innovation model: that the type of technology developed and adopted in a country reflects a rational response to relative scarcity of resources. New agricultural technology helps in substituting the relatively scarce factors by those that are relatively abundant. The signals are created mainly in the market-place. It is not, however, clear how the induced-innovation model can help in making current decisions about allocating resources to agricultural research.