Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse of ESSP gave a presentation on Pathways Less Explored – Locus of Control and Technology Adoption at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) on March 24, 2017. The study explores the role of individuals’ locus of control as a potential complementary avenue to promote the adoption of modern technologies. Using data from several large surveys in rural Ethiopia, it first measure locus of control and find evidence of ‘external’ locus of control among a substantial fraction of rural households. An ordered choice framework is subsequently employed to estimate these households’ propensity of technology adoption. The empirical specification extends the standard model by explicitly including locus of control measures. Associations between modern inputs use and factors conventionally deemed important (such as access to extension, household wealth, and agro-ecology) are uncovered. Moreover, the results provide strongly suggestive evidence that lower internal and higher ‘external’ locus of control respectively dampen the propensity to adopt modern farming technology. These new findings indicate that locus of control and related psychological traits may serve as a complementary pathway to influence farmers’ choices in production technology and beyond. Full details of this presentation are available here
This presentation was organized by ESSP and EDRI. ESSP is a collaborative program undertaken by IFPRI and EDRI, whose objective is to help improve the policy-making decision process in Ethiopia.
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