Monitoring and Tracking the Economics of Information in the Convention on Biological Diversity: Studied Ignorance (2002-2011)

From the outset of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the application of the economics of information to “access to genetic resources” appears in the published literature. The implications for “the fair and equitable sharing of benefits” (ABS) run counter to the policy discussion in the ten Conferences of the Parties to the CBD (1993-2010). Meanwhile the economics of information has become main stream as witnessed by the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize and its incorporation in introductory textbooks by 2001. Through Google, Google Scholar and LexisNexis, the ABS literature is searched including and excluding the “economics of information” for the period 2002-2011. The hits differ by three to four orders of magnitude without any evidence of subsiding over the period examined. Such studied ignorance is distinguished from the mere lack of due diligence by exploring two examples from academic superstars who ironically have complained about their scholarship being ignored.