INFORMATION QUALITY, TECHNOLOGY DEPRECIATION, AND BT COTTON ADOPTION IN THE SOUTHEAST

In 1996, Bt cotton became one of the first genetically engineered crops to be available commercially. This study focuses on the various sources and quality of information about Bt cotton profitability available to farmers in the Southeast and assesses the relative importance of such information in the farmers' adoption decisions. A model of the individual decision to adopt is developed to incorporate two recent theories of the role of information quality (the "effective information" hypothesis and the "popularity" hypothesis) as well as the effect of current technology depreciation. The data show some support for all three factors as determinants of adoption.