The Economic Impact of New Technology Adoption on the U.S. Apple Industry

Abstract

We develop a temporal and spatial partial equilibrium model to evaluate the welfare impact of new technology on the apple industry to control fire blight. We show significant benefits of GM technology relative to conventional methods and other new methods such as microencapsulation of biological agents. We also show that the cost-reduction benefits of the technology exceed the yield-increasing benefits.

Keywords

• apple production
• fire blight
• technology adoption
• welfare analysis