TIME TO CHANGE WHAT TO SOW: RISK PREFERENCES AND TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION DECISIONS OF COTTON FARMERS IN CHINA

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Liu, Elaine M.
• 署名单位: University of Houston System; University of Houston
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00295
• 发表日期: 2013-10
• 页码: 1386-1403
• 关键词: expected-utility-theory; bt-cotton; developing-countries; technical change; prospect-theory; aversion; PRODUCTIVITY; uncertainty; attitudes; WEALTH

摘要

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.