Inappropriate Technology: Evidence from Global Agriculture

Jacob Moscona and Karthik A. Sastry

No 33500, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: An influential explanation for global productivity differences is that frontier technologies are adapted to the high-income countries that develop them and "inappropriate" elsewhere. We study this hypothesis in agriculture using data on novel plant varieties, patents, output, and the global range of crop pests and pathogens. Innovation focuses on the environmental conditions of technology leaders, and ecological mismatch with these markets reduces technology transfer and production. Combined with a model, our estimates imply that inappropriate technology explains 15-20% of cross-country agricultural productivity differences and re-shapes the potential consequences of innovation policy, the rise of new technology leaders, and environmental change.

JEL-codes: O3 O33 O4 O44 Q16 Q56 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-eff and nep-int
Note: DEV EFG PR
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