Who Benefits from a Bioprospecting-Based Boom? The Case of Argan Oil in Morocco

Abstract

This paper breaks new ground in the literature on bioprospecting by evaluating the local welfare effects associated with the successful bioprospecting-driven commercialization of argan oil in southwestern Morocco. The principal finding is that even when locals appear well-positioned to reap the ex post benefits of a bioprospecting success, one can reject the hypothesis that successful bioprospecting fuels local development and reduces poverty. Most locals participate only superficially in the bioprospecting-based boom and the benefits that do trickle down to local households appear to be regressively distributed, both regionally and between households. The key lies in understanding how opening up to new markets may induce endogenous product differentiation that easily excludes locals, especially the poor, and how ex ante market access - a variable commonly directly related to wealth - conditions households' capacity to participate in market-induced producer windfalls.