some limited information is available on private sector agricultural research in other countries see for instance pardey beintema dehmer and wood whether they were concerned with spillovers or not studies have imposed implicit or explicit assumptions about the spatial spillover effects of agricultural research based on geopolitical boundaries more recently agricultural economists have been paying increasing attention to accounting for the fact that knowledge created within a particular geopolitical entity can have impacts on technology elsewhere with implications that may matter to both the creators of the spillouts and the recipients of the spillins see alston for a review of this literature and alston et al