AGRICOLA IND 90019481, Technical change is dynamic, recursive, and endogenous to the economic system. However, empirical studies usually treat technology as exogenous, defining technical change in terms of its end result: changes in some production possibilities set. An endogenous view of technical change is necessary to understand, anticipate, and perhaps alter the development and use of new technologies and their associated problems. This article outlines a conceptual framework in which technical change is endogenous. The framework accounts for the dynamic and recursive interactions between research and development activities, the adoption and diffusion of new innovations, and the regulatory and institutional environment. As an example, the development of glyphosate-tolerant crops is discussed to show how the framework can be used to identify, organize, and understand the important variables and relationships for a specific case of technical change.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 93 Document Number: C07070
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, see C07062-C07069, In: W. Rivera and S. Schram (eds.) Agricultural Extension Worldwide. New York : Croom Helm, 1989. p. 261-269
27pgs, This study examines the effect of gender on marketing efficiency among maize producing households using data collected in the Dawuro zone, southern Ethiopia. Results indicate that the amount of maize assigned to the first ranked (most efficient) channel for male, female and joint decision-making households is significantly larger than that of the second, third, and fourth ranked channels, respectively. Significant results vary across gender categories at the same stage of marketing channel. Female decision-making households receive a lower producer price, as well as cover higher marketing costs and margins of middlemen, as compared to male and joint decision-makers at the same stage of the marketing channel. This study also found a limited financial ability for local institutions to establish maize storages in the study area. There is a need for an integrated agricultural marketing information system that would help female decision-making maize producers to better engage in available market opportunities.