The Value of Variable Rate Technology: An Information‐Theoretic Approach
从信息论角度分析可变速率技术的经济学价值，基于伊利诺伊州玉米田的氮肥施用数据，发现免费提供地块特定信息时，八块田中有六块使用可变速率氮肥施用可盈利，建议增加公共资金支持长期多区域多年度实验。
Abstract We present a theoretical treatment of the economics of variable rate technology and its interplay with information. The framework facilitates description of on‐farm empirical profitability studies of variable rate nitrogen application on Illinois cornfields. We estimate site‐specific ex ante economically optimal nitrogen application rates, and the value of site‐specific information in the management of variable rate technology. We find that with site‐specific information provided free, variable rate nitrogen application would have been profitable in six of eight fields. Because private markets are unlikely to provide such information sufficiently, more public funding of long‐term, multiregion, multiyear experimentation is appropriate.