Receptiveness to Advice, Cognitive Ability, and Technology Adoption
58 Pages Posted: 8 May 2015 Last revised: 8 Dec 2017
Date Written: December 7, 2017
Abstract
We construct a model of technology adoption with agents differing on two dimensions: their cognitive ability and their receptiveness to advice. While cognitive ability unambiguously speeds adoption, receptiveness to advice may speed adoption for individuals with low cognitive ability, but slow adoption for individuals with high cognitive ability. We conduct economic experiments measuring US farmers' cognitive ability and receptiveness to advice and examine how these characteristics impact their speed of adoption of genetically modified (GM) corn seeds. The empirical analysis shows that early adopters are those who are both quite able cognitively and not receptive to advice.
Keywords: technology adoption, learning, responsiveness to advice, receptiveness to advice, advice taking, cognitive ability, economic experiments, genetically modified (GM) seeds
JEL Classification: D22, D83, O33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation