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Abstract Modern agricultural technologies can increase productivity and enhance resilience to climate shocks. However, the low adoption of new technologies in developing countries is puzzling. The efficiency of subsidies to boost technology adoption is debatable. On the one hand, subsidization of agricultural technologies could be justified in the presence of externalities (e.g., environmental or learning externalities) or information market failures. On the other hand, charging full market prices could improve targeting through a screening effect, especially if farmers with higher willingness-to-pay have higher returns to adoption. This research study aims to analyze the allocative efficiency of higher prices by focusing on a new agricultural technology – improved wheat variety – that has been recently introduced in response to emerging crop diseases in Bangladesh. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT), we analyze the extent to which higher prices of a new technology could lead to efficient sorting. That is, whether charging higher prices causes farmers with lower actual returns to choose not to adopt. One innovation of the study is that we use a two-step experiment to estimate whether actual returns are lower among farmers that are unwilling to pay higher prices. Modern agricultural technologies can increase productivity and enhance resilience to climate shocks. However, the low adoption of new technologies in developing countries is puzzling. The efficiency of subsidies to boost technology adoption is debatable. On the one hand, subsidization of agricultural technologies could be justified in the presence of externalities (e.g., environmental or learning externalities) or information market failures. On the other hand, charging full market prices could improve targeting through a screening effect, especially if farmers with higher willingness-to-pay have higher returns to adoption. This research study aims to analyze the allocative efficiency of higher prices by focusing on a new agricultural technology – improved wheat variety – that has been recently introduced in response to emerging crop diseases in Bangladesh. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT), we analyze the extent to which higher prices of a new technology could lead to efficient sorting. That is, whether charging higher prices causes farmers with lower actual returns to choose not to buy. One innovation of the study is that we use a two-step experiment to estimate whether actual returns are lower among farmers who do not buy at higher prices.
Last Published May 20, 2023 01:10 AM December 21, 2025 12:55 PM
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2022_04_29_Mai_PAP_final.pdf
MD5: 06e3ecadf7f1587fe27d38d50dadcbd1
SHA1: 96add50916e6aa21cce00ac0812d183742c114a4
Title Pre-analysis plan
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