Time to Change What to Sow: Risk Preferences and Technology Adoption Decisions of Cotton Farmers in China
Liu, Elaine Meichen. (2012). Time to Change What to Sow: Risk Preferences and Technology Adoption Decisions of Cotton Farmers in China. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(4), 1386-1403.
Liu, Elaine Meichen. (2012). Time to Change What to Sow: Risk Preferences and Technology Adoption Decisions of Cotton Farmers in China. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(4), 1386-1403.
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This paper examines the role of individual risk attitudes in the decision to adopt a new form of agricultural biotechnology in China. I conducted a survey and a field experiment to elicit the risk preferences of Chinese farmers, who faced the decision of whether to adopt genetically modified Bt cotton a decade ago. In my analysis, I expand the measurement of risk preferences beyond expected utility theory to incorporate prospect theory. I find that farmers who are more risk averse or more loss averse adopt Bt cotton later. Farmers who overweight small probabilities adopt Bt cotton earlier.
JOUR
Liu, Elaine Meichen
2012
The Review of Economics and Statistics
95
4
1386-1403
0034-6535
10.1162/REST_a_00295
1716