Economics of Technology Adoption- A Simple Approach

This study examines the factors that influence the simultaneous adoption ofno-till farming technology and Roundup Ready soybean (RR) varieties and thewelfare benefits of the adoption of the technologies. The single adoption ofthe individual technologies is analyzed using a feasible generalized leastsquares (FGLS) estimation. A two-limit Tobit procedure is further used toanalyze the extent of the adoption of the technologies. To answer thequestion of the simultaneity between the two technologies we construct aWu-Hausman test statistic using the results of two separate single equationprobit models and a simultaneous two-equation econometric model.Furthermore the book provides readers with a simple way of analyzing thewelfare benefits of adopting a new technology in the case of a parallel and apivotal shift of the supply curve. The theoretical model developed assumestwo main regions; a large producer country adopting the new technology(U.S.) and the rest of the world (ROW) as the non-adopting region. Economicsurpluses gained by producers and consumers in the two regions arediscussed.This book is aimed at providing professionals policy makers researchers andintermediate to graduate level students in economics with simple but rigorousstrategies that can be used in modeling and analyzing the concomitantadoption of technologies.