Genetically-modified organisms in food production represent a new technology with attributes that are valued differently by producers and consumers. Producers heterogeneous preferences for specific traits and uncertainty about those traits may significantly affect demand for this new technology and its diffusion in agriculture. Conventional frameworks for understanding technology adoption are poorly suited for modeling demand for new technology in such a setting.
This book develops a framework to study innovations in the traits of technologies and applies it to biotech crops. It describes in...