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Social Preferences and Agricultural Innovation: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia

Bereket Kebede, Daniel John Zizzo · 2014 · World Development

Summary. An experiment in Ethiopia shows that farmers who burn money to reduce others' earnings display strong inequality aversion based on absolute income differences. Villages where farmers engage in more money burning adopt fewer agricultural innovations in practice. This demonstrates that social preferences—particularly concerns about fairness and relative wealth—significantly influence whether farmers adopt new agricultural technologies in developing countries.

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Kebede, B., & Zizzo, D. J.. (2014). Social Preferences and Agricultural Innovation: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia. World Development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.10.022

Details

DOI
10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.10.022
Countries
Ethiopia
Regions
Africa
Categories
agtech, innovation-theory
Added
2026-04-28