Modeling Directions of Technical Change in Agricultural Sector.

Abstract

This paper reviews the economic models explaining the directions of technical change. The application to agricultural sector is also explored. The induced innovation model extensively used in agricultural development studies has left unexplained stylized facts in several empirical evidences. This leads to the motivation of this paper to find an alternative model. While the induced innovation relies heavily on the change of relative factor price on biased technical change, the directed technical change model developed by Acemoglu (2002, 2007, 2009) endogenizes investment on research and explains the incentives of technology monopolists. The directed technical change model is developed and applied to agricultural sector. Given a hypothetical situation of increasing relative scarce agricultural labor, the model provides insights of which the policy direction for technical change in agricultural sector can be expected.directed technical change, induced innovation