Technology adoption, comparative advantage, and suboptimal choices: Evidence from Bangladesh
Journal
Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy
ISSN
2040-5804
2040-5790
Date Issued
2025-07-14
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Mullally,Conner
Abstract
Despite the potential for hybrid rice varieties to increase yields, their adoption rates among Bangladeshi smallholders remain low. Most farmers prefer suboptimal inbred high-yielding or local rice varieties. Using a rich panel dataset from Bangladesh, this study tests the comparative advantage hypothesis—whether heterogeneous returns from adopting hybrid rice varieties explain slower diffusion among rice farmers. The findings reveal that hybrid rice varieties exhibit about 30% higher average returns than non-hybrids, and returns exceeding 70% accrue to only a small subset of farmers based on their comparative advantage. In contrast, many other farmers experience minimal or negative returns from adopting hybrid rice varieties. The findings show no comparative advantage in transitioning from local to high-yielding varieties (HYV), suggesting returns to HYV adoption are more uniform across farmers. Findings from this study confirm that adoption decisions are well-explained based on individual returns to available technology.
Subjects
panel data
post-harvest losses
production risk
profits
South Asia
yield
SDGs
Publisher
Wiley
Type
journal article