The Comilla co-operative approach and the prospects for broad-based green revolution in Bangladesh

Observers have argued that, although Bangladesh has not yet experienced the Green Revolution in any real sense, the Comilla co-operative experiment has been fairly successful not only in the adoption but also in the equitable distribution of the benefits of the new agricultural technology, and that the spread of the Comilla-like diffusion programmes can be expected to yield similar results in other parts of Bangladesh. This paper contends that the Comilla experience does not lend support to such optimism.     

Competitiveness and Subsidy or Tax Policy for New Technology Adoption in Duopoly

We consider a problem of subsidy or tax policy for new technology adoption by duopolistic firms. The technology is developed in and transferred by a foreign country to the domestic country. It is free but each firm must expend some fixed set-up cost for education of its staff to adopt and use it. Assuming that each firm maximizes the weighted average of absolute and relative profits, we examine the relationship between competitiveness and subsidy or tax policies for technology adoption, and show that when firm behavior is not competitive (the weight on the relative profit is small), the optimal policy of the government may be taxation; when firm behavior is competitive (the weight on the relative profit is large), the optimal policy is subsidization or inaction and not taxation. However, if firm behavior is extremely competitive (close to perfect competition), taxation case re-emerges.     

Aging,automation, and productivity in Korea

This paper examines the impact of aging in the Republic of Korea on productivity as measured by labor productivity or total factor productivity (TFP). It also assesses the effect of robot adoption on the relation between aging and productivity using industrial level data. We find that aging is negatively associated with labor productivity and TFP growth. This is true particularly when aging is measured by increases in shares of old workers. If aging is measured by increases in the median age of workers, the negative effect is weaker. Evidence also suggests that robot technology mitigates aging's negative effect on productivity growth, particularly when productivity is measured by TFP. However, there is no evidence that robots are more heavily adopted in aged industries. While robot technology does not directly contribute to higher productivity growth, our findings suggest that the robot adoption can alleviate the negative impact of aging by helping workers in their 50s and 60s contribute less adversly to productivity growth.     

Designing Agricultural Technology for African Women Farmers: Lessons from 25 Years of Experience

African women farmers are less likely than men to adopt improved crop varieties and management systems. This paper addresses two issues: How does gender affect technology adoption among African farmers? How does the introduction of new technologies affect women's well-being? Three conclusions come out of an extensive and critical review of the literature. First, African households are complex and heterogeneous. Second, gender roles within African households and communities cannot be simply summarized. Third, gender roles and responsibilities are dynamic; they respond to changing economic circumstances. The paper demonstrates the complexity and importance of efforts to design interventions for African women.     

社会网络、分工网络与农户行为——以河南麦农新种子采纳时间为例

农户是中国农业经营的主体,农户的技术采纳行为对于推进我国农业技术进步及农业现代化进程具有决定性意义。文章阐明了社会网络通过塑造农民态度进而促进其技术采纳时间的作用机制以及存在异质性作用的情景,并基于河南麦农对新种子采纳时间的实证分析表明:以网络位置和互助水平为表征的社会网络对农户新种子早期采纳有显著促进作用,且农户的采纳态度发挥了部分中介作用。文章进一步引入分工网络,考察了其与社会网络的互动及对农户技术采纳时间的影响。文章的政策意义在于,推进农业发展方式转型必须重视乡村社会网络对于农业新技术快速采纳的积极作用,与此同时,在推广机制上应加大农业技术培训力度,在乡村治理中加强农户家庭生产决策中的女性话语权,理解农机服务外包可能存在的"双刃剑"作用,以此动员和激励农户对新技术的快速采纳。     

New deal or no deal in the Cotton South: The effect of the AAA on the agricultural labor structure

The Agricultural Adjustment Act has often been held responsible for the rapid reduction of share tenants and sharecroppers (laborers paid shares of the crop) during the 1930s. However, this conclusion has come with limited empirical backing. We shed new light on the consequences of this New Deal policy by empirically testing the role that the AAA cotton reduction program had on the displacement of share tenants and sharecroppers in the Cotton South. The results suggest that the AAA played a significant role in the displacement of black and white sharecroppers and black managing tenants even though it was a violation of AAA contracts for landlords to displace these workers.     

Relative Effects of IFRS Adoption and IFRS Convergence on Financial Statement Comparability

One of the primary objectives of both adoption of IFRS and convergence between IFRS and U.S. GAAP is to increase financial statement comparability. Using a unique setting in Germany, we compare the effectiveness of these two approaches in achieving this desired outcome. Our empirical tests show that both adoption and convergence lead to an increase in comparability after the new enforcement regulation in 2005. However, difference‐in‐differences tests show that adoption does not lead to a significant incremental increase in comparability beyond convergence. The findings of this study should be of interest to regulators and standard setters as they assess alternative methods of aligning domestic standards with IFRS.     

Adoption of fertiliser and hybrid seeds by smallholder maize farmers in Southern Malawi

Despite decades of agricultural policies that promoted the adoption of fertiliser and hybrid seed technologies as ways of improving productivity in maize farming, smallholder farmers in Malawi have been relatively slow to adopt the new technology. Using bivariate probit analysis and controlling for technology acquisition through grants, we found that fertiliser adoption was positively associated with higher levels of education, larger plot sizes and higher non-farm incomes, but negatively associated with households headed by women and distance from input markets. The adoption of hybrid seeds is positively associated with market-based land tenure systems and fertile soils, but negatively associated with age of the farmer and distance from input markets.     

数字技术采纳、社会网络拓展与农户共同富裕

数字技术不仅是农户生产生活的重要工具,而且是推进农户共同富裕的重要途径。现有研究对共同富裕的测度多从宏观视角出发,测度区域和国家的总体共同富裕水平,鲜有研究从微观层面探究增进农户共同富裕的问题。文章基于2019年中国社会状况综合调查(CSS2019)数据,对7031份农户样本的共同富裕水平进行刻画,运用Oprobit模型和中介效应模型实证检验数字技术采纳对农户共同富裕的影响及作用机制。研究发现:数字技术采纳显著提升了农户共同富裕水平,在更换变量、采取工具变量法估计与PSM匹配等检验后,结论仍然稳健。机制分析发现,数字技术采纳通过拓展社会网络促进农户共同富裕,其中,社会网络规模和社会网络强度是其主要传导机制。异质性分析发现,数字技术采纳对低收入组农户的共同富裕促进效应强于高收入组,有助于缓解农村内部贫富差距,发挥着促进"增富"及"共享"的分配效应;采用数字技术进行浏览信息、休闲娱乐、商务工作和投资理财对农户共同富裕发挥显著的促进作用,其中采用数字技术进行商务工作,对农户共同富裕水平的提升效应最大。可见,应以实施乡村建设行动为契机,完善农村数字硬件设施和软件基础,提升农户数字技术采纳能力,共享数字化发展红利,实现共同富裕。     

Risk preferences,production contracts and technology adoption by broiler farmers in China

This study expands on existing research on farmers' risk preferences and technology adoption, with novel analysis of the relationship between risk preferences, production contract participation, and technology investment levels and adoption time. Our analysis uses farm-level data from 345 Chinese broiler growers, and used an instrumental variables strategy and endogenous switching models to address the potential endogeneity of the contracting decision. Both the distance of the farm to the nearest broiler business and the distance of the farm to the nearest market for broiler sale are used as instrumental variables for the contracting decision. Results indicate that farmers with higher risk aversion are more likely to participate in production contracts, less likely to adopt new technology, adopt technology later, and invest less in technology. In the subsample of contract farmers, production contracts with longer terms, lower upfront deposit requirements and higher cost sharing with enterprises for technology adoption may make farmers more likely to adopt technology, to adopt technology early and to invest more. These findings jointly suggest that contract terms that help alleviate credit constraints may be more effective at promoting technology adoption in developing countries.     

Socio-economic reasons for the low adoption of water conservation technologies by smallholder farmers in southern Africa: a review of the literature

Natural resource degradation and water scarcity, which threaten the sustainability of smallholder farmers' livelihoods in semi-arid developing areas, are a global concern. Although researchers have developed water-conservation technologies (WCTs), adoption rates by smallholder farmers have been low. This article compares the perspectives of researchers and smallholder farmers, highlights the discrepancies which explain the farmers' low uptake of technologies and addresses the socio-economic factors affecting adoption. It argues that WCTs are diverse and applicable to different time and spatial scales and hence dependent upon context. These traits influence the dissemination and adoption of WCTs, and should not be ignored, from the early stage of technology development. It explains that adoption depends not only on individual farmers' willingness but also on property rights to resources and collective community action. The article discusses the demand for WCTs, the role of the public sector and research and related biases, and makes recommendations for achieving more sustainable rural livelihoods. Recent experiences in South Africa show that encouraging farmers to participate in technology development, taking account of local indigenous knowledge and making sound institutional arrangements are some ways to foster better integration of technology and innovation.     

劳动力转移、技术诱导及其实现条件:477个样本

以水稻生产中两种劳动节约技术(品种技术和机械技术)组合为例,利用川渝两地477家农户的调查数据,运用probit模型分析劳动力转移对农户采纳劳动节约技术的诱导效应,同时论证了该效应的实现条件。结果表明:如果不考虑农业要素市场完善程度等实现条件的差异,劳动力转移对农户采纳劳动节约技术没形成诱导,反而产生了负效应。而按照实现条件的满足与否进行分组回归发现:在实现条件满足的前提下,劳动力转移对农户采纳节约劳动技术的诱导效应才得以实现。     

The Impact of Housing Prices on Health in the United States Before,During, and After the Great Recession

We estimate the effects of U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area housing prices on a variety of health outcomes and health-related behaviors separately for homeowners and tenants. The constructed data set consists of information on individuals from the 2002–2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System combined with homeownership data from the March Current Population Survey and housing prices from Freddie Mac. We estimate positive effects on homeowners' mental health when housing prices increase. We also find negative effects on tenants' health and health-related behaviors with increases in housing prices. These estimated contemporaneous effects are concentrated among low-income homeowners and tenants, and the effects for tenants are not persistent in the long run. However, the cumulative effects of an increase in housing prices on obesity become more pronounced for homeowners in the long run, resulting in worse self-reported health.     

Changes over time in the decision to adopt curbside recycling

This study uses observations on California cities to estimate a model of the municipal decision to adopt curbside recycling. The model is estimated separately for two time periods: before and after a state waste-diversion mandate was imposed (that is, early and later adoption). It finds that citizen preferences matter greatly in early adoption decisions, but does not matter at all after the mandate was imposed. Landfill disposal opportunity costs, operating costs, and competitive disposal outlets are not significant in explaining early or later adoption. This study uses county-level data to confirm the results of the municipal-level analysis.     

Does information technology raise Japan's productivity?

A standard growth accounting exercise indicates that, after Japan's “lost decade,” its overall total-factor-productivity (TFP) growth has increased notably since 2000. This productivity revival has been limited, however, to information technology (IT) production—has not been a broad-based productivity acceleration like that seen in the United States after the mid-1990s. This paper examines the relationship between IT and productivity gains by employing the “augmented” growth accounting framework for Japanese industry-level data from 1975 through 2005. In particular, we estimate “purified” technology change at industry level by accounting for cyclical mismeasurement of inputs. We find that the post-2000 increase in overall TFP growth does indeed appear to arise from an increase in technological change. Furthermore, the pickup in technology growth has occurred not only in the production of IT but also in the industries that use IT intensively. Our results suggest the possibility that stories of IT as a general purpose technology (GPT) could apply to Japan as well as to the United States.     

Were British cotton entrepreneurs technologically backward? Firm-level evidence on the adoption of ring spinning

I study the slow adoption of ring spinning in Great Britain's cotton industry at the end of the 19th century, which has been used as evidence of British entrepreneurs' declining efficiency and conservatism (Musson, 1959; Aldcroft, 1964; Lazonick, 1981, 1981b). To this purpose I use firm-level data from all of Lancashire's cotton firms over several years. The data are from Worrall's The Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers' Directory for the years 1885, 1886–1887, 1890, 1894, 1902, and 1910.First, I show that the vertical organization of the industry, with its firms specializing in spinning or weaving, did not act as an impediment to the adoption of the ring spinning technology, as was argued by Lazonick. In particular, I show the following: i) non-integrated firms were the first to adopt rings in Great Britain; ii) the large majority of firms that adopted rings were incumbents; iii) vertically integrated firms that were spinning only either twist or weft yarn were still in existence in 1910; and iv) only a negligible number of firms changed their organizational structure upon adopting ring spinning. I also show that a large fraction of firms installed very small numbers of ring spindles upon the adoption of ring spinning, suggesting that firms were slowly adopting ring spindles to replace old mule spindles rather than transitioning over to ring spinning at a single point in time.Then, I show that the rate at which vertically integrated firms adopted rings suddenly accelerated after 1902. I interpret this as evidence that British entrepreneurs were fully aware of the technological complementarities between rings and automatic looms. These complementarities could only be fully exploited by vertically integrated firms.     

Community participation in upgrading irregular settlements: The community response

This second paper on community action in Bogotá (Colombia), Mexico City (Mexico) and Valencia (Venezuela) examines levels of direct community involvement in improving irregular settlements. Our surveys reveal that family involvement in activities such as lobbying officials, attendance at community meetings or providing labour for neighbourhood schemes was quite limited — no more than two-fifths of owner households in survey barrios participated. Participation varied with tenure and the project; owners participated more than tenants and water and electricity programmes generated high levels of support. Despite these findings we argue that the extent and form of community participation is shaped less by local or settlement conditions than by government needs and policies.     

The price of improvements: agrarian contracts and agrarian development in nineteenth‐century eastern Spain1

Fixed‐rent contracts do not free landlords from the need to supervise the land if it is of high value and fragile fertility, nor do they free them from the costs of monitoring farmers if they are poor peasants prone to fall into arrears. In such cases, however, compensation for improvements will encourage tenants to farm with care and act as a bond against non‐payment of rent. This article studies the repercussions of these kinds of situations by analysing what happened in nineteenth‐century Valencia, where being the owners of the improvements led to tenants eventually becoming the owners of the land.     

Rural energy technology assessment: A Sri Lankan case study

This paper reports and assesses the results of a comparative survey on the costs and benefits of windmills and kerosene pumpsets for irrigation of subsidiary food crops in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. Secondary objectives are to draw out lessons from the survey (i) for other renewable energy technology programs and (ii) for evaluation methods. Survey results provide a windmill user evaluation, a cost analysis and a comparison of net crop income under the two techniques (windmill and kerosene pumpset). At both financial and economic prices the renewable energy technology is found inferior to the fossil-fuel based technology. The small data set requires caution in drawing final conclusions but does suggest that there is a critical loss in flexibility over cropping patterns by adoption of the windmill.     

Deviations from the Mandatory Adoption of IFRS in the European Union: Implementation,Enforcement, Incentives,and Compliance

In this paper, we evaluate the common assumption that European Union (EU) firms began using international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in 2005 when the EU formally adopted IFRS. Although the incidence of firms using local (or some other) GAAP declined between 2005 and 2012, it is still non‐trivial. By 2012 the incidence of non‐IFRS financial statements was still in excess of 17 percent (87 percent of which were fully consolidated). We estimate a model of the non‐adoption of IFRS as a function of implementation features of the IFRS regulation, country‐specific enforcement, and firm‐specific reporting incentives. As expected, being specifically required by EU‐wide and country‐specific rules to adopt IFRS is positively associated with IFRS adoption but does not constitute a complete explanation. Proxies for enforcement are significantly associated with non‐adoption, but the marginal effects of the enforcement variables are weak. We find that larger firms, firms with foreign operations and more analyst following, and firms that issue new debt and equity were more likely to adopt IFRS, both when the regulation was initially imposed and in subsequent years. We conclude that many EU firms do not use IFRS; that some firms exploited definitions, exemptions, and deferrals to avoid adopting IFRS while some firms simply failed to comply with the regulation; and that firms responded to their incentives in deciding whether to adopt IFRS.