IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isu/genstf/198001010800008144.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The adoption decision: a human capital approach

Author

Listed:
  • Wozniak, Gregory Dean

Abstract

The decision to adopt technological innovations was analyzed. A rate of adoption (adjustment) model was transposed into a single period model of the adoption decision. The decision to adopt was specified as an adjustment to a disequilibrium in the "optimal" set of inputs. The probability of adoption was determined by the level of innovative ability and the scale of production. Education, experience, and the availability of information were hypothesized to be measurable dimensions of innovative ability;The empirical results show that increases in education and information enhance innovative ability, and thereby raise the probability of adoption. Operators with more education and those who acquire more information about the use of new products and procedures are more aware of innovative factors of production, are more efficient evaluating the productive characteristics and costs of those innovations, and are more likely to adjust their utilized set of inputs through adoption. The estimated effect of increases in experience, however, did not support the hypothesis of the innovative ability model of adoption. The results also showed that operators are more cognizant of innovative factors when they can be applied in the larger scale activities of the operation. Also, scale economies in the usage of information exist, but the benefits realized by the average operator were small in relation to the potential benefits provided by larger scales of production. The results, however, did not indicate, either because of limitations of the data or the model, that the economic variables which are measurable dimensions of innnovative ability substitute for or complement each other's contribution to innovative efficiency. The results also suggest that if an innovation can be employed along with current inputs it is more likely to be adopted than if it displaces currently utilized inputs.

Suggested Citation

  • Wozniak, Gregory Dean, 1980. "The adoption decision: a human capital approach," ISU General Staff Papers 198001010800008144, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:isu:genstf:198001010800008144
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/27eeba45-b92d-4e29-9faa-5b0fc5db7bc4/content
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edwin F. Ulveling & Lehman B. Fletcher, 1970. "A Cobb-Douglas Production Function with Variable Returns to Scale," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 52(2), pages 322-326.
    2. Theodore W. Schultz, 1972. "The Increasing Economic Value of Human Time," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 54(5), pages 843-850.
    3. Hadar, Josef & Russell, William R., 1971. "Stochastic dominance and diversification," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 288-305, September.
    4. G. Hanoch & H. Levy, 1969. "The Efficiency Analysis of Choices Involving Risk," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 36(3), pages 335-346.
    5. Westin, Richard B., 1974. "Predictions from binary choice models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-16, May.
    6. Nabil Khaldi, 1975. "Education and Allocative Efficiency in U.S. Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 57(4), pages 650-657.
    7. McGillivray, Robert G, 1970. "Estimating the Linear Probability Function," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(5), pages 775-776, September.
    8. Welch, F, 1970. "Education in Production," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(1), pages 35-59, Jan.-Feb..
    9. L. Dean Hiebert, 1974. "Risk, Learning, and the Adoption of Fertilizer Responsive Seed Varieties," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 56(4), pages 764-768.
    10. Jerome M. Wolgin, 1975. "Resource Allocation and Risk: A Case Study of Smallholder Agriculture in Kenya," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 57(4), pages 622-630.
    11. Schultz, Theodore W, 1975. "The Value of the Ability to Deal with Disequilibria," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 827-846, September.
    12. Wallace E. Huffman, 1974. "Decision Making: The Role of Education," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 56(1), pages 85-97.
    13. Edwin Mansfield, 1963. "The Speed of Response of Firms to New Techniques," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 77(2), pages 290-311.
    14. Zvi Griliches, 1970. "Notes on the Role of Education in Production Functions and Growth Accounting," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Income, and Human Capital, pages 71-127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Globerman, Steven, 1975. "Technological Diffusion in the Canadian Tool and Die Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 57(4), pages 428-434, November.
    16. Romeo, Anthony A, 1975. "Interindustry and Interfirm Differences in the Rate of Diffusion of an Innovation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 57(3), pages 311-319, August.
    17. Duane G. Harris & Richard F. Nehring, 1976. "Impact of Farm Size on the Bidding Potential for Agricultural Land," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 58(2), pages 161-169.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rahm, Michael Robert, 1980. "An economic analysis of the corn production efficiency of Iowa farm firms," ISU General Staff Papers 198001010800008119, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rahm, Michael Robert, 1980. "An economic analysis of the corn production efficiency of Iowa farm firms," ISU General Staff Papers 198001010800008119, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:357-386 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Hildreth, R.J. & Bentley, Orville G. & Johnson, Glenn L. & Tweeten, Luther & Mellor, John W. & Bromley, Daniel W. & Pope, Rulon D. & Leman, Christopher K. & Paarlberg, Robert L. & King, R.P. & Sonka, , 1985. "Agriculture and Rural Areas Approaching the Twenty-first Century: Challenges for Agricultural Economics," 1985 Annual Meeting, August 4-7, Ames, Iowa 278707, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Antle, John M., 1980. "A Dynamic Optimization Model Of Firm Behavior In The Context Of Uncertainty And Technical Change," Working Papers 225687, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    5. Menz, Kenneth M. & Longworth, John W., 1976. "Allocative Ability, Information Processing And Farm Management," Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 44(04), pages 1-5, December.
    6. Sharada Weir, 1999. "The effects of education on farmer productivity in rural Ethiopia," CSAE Working Paper Series 1999-07, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    7. Gafsi, Salem & Roe, Terry, 1979. "Adoption of Unlike High-yielding Wheat Varieties in Tunisia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 119-133, October.
    8. Biagia De Devitiis & Ornella Wanda Maietta, 2015. "Shadow Prices of Human Capital in Agriculture. Evidence from European FADN Regions," CSEF Working Papers 415, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    9. Jolliffe, Dean, 2004. "The impact of education in rural Ghana: examining household labor allocation and returns on and off the farm," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 287-314, February.
    10. George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2004. "Returns to investment in education: a further update," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 111-134.
    11. Rahm, Michael R. & Huftman, Wallace E., 1982. "The Adoption Of Reduced Tillage: The Role Of Human Capital And Other Variables," 1982 Annual Meeting, August 1-4, Logan, Utah 279129, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    12. Phanhpakit ONPHANHDALA, 2009. "Farmer Education and Agricultural Efficiency: Evidence from Lao PDR," GSICS Working Paper Series 20, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University.
    13. Marcos Gallacher, 2001. "Education as an Input in Agricultural Production," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 189, Universidad del CEMA.
    14. Marcos Gallacher, 2008. "The impact of human capital on firm-level input use: Argentine agriculture," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 380, Universidad del CEMA.
    15. Longsworth, John & Menz, Kenneth M., 1977. "Training For Farm Management Decisionmaking," 1977 Occasional Paper Series No. 1 190969, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Jones, Patricia, 2001. "Are educated workers really more productive?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 57-79, February.
    17. Tao Yang, Dennis, 2004. "Education and allocative efficiency: household income growth during rural reforms in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 137-162, June.
    18. Young, Douglas & Lin, William & Pope, Rulon & Robison, Lindon & Selley, Roger, 1979. "Risk Preferences Of Agricultual Producers:Their Measurement And Use," Risk Management in Agriculture: Behavioral, Managerial, and Policy Issues, January 25-26, 1979, San Francisco, California 271459, Regional Research Projects > W-149: An Economic Evaluation of Managing Market Risks in Agriculture.
    19. Francisco Queiró, 2022. "Entrepreneurial Human Capital and Firm Dynamics [How Large Are Human-Capital Externalities? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(4), pages 2061-2100.
    20. Raymond H. Chan & Ephraim Clark & Xu Guo & Wing-Keung Wong, 2020. "New development on the third-order stochastic dominance for risk-averse and risk-seeking investors with application in risk management," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(2), pages 108-132, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:isu:genstf:198001010800008144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Curtis Balmer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deiasus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.