Intrahousehold preference heterogeneity and demand for labor‐saving agricultural technology
研究了家庭内部男女对机械插秧技术的不同偏好和决策影响力，发现女性更看重该技术但影响力较小，反映了家庭权力结构对技术采纳的影响。
Abstract Evaluations of agricultural technologies rarely consider the implications of how adoption may alter the labor allocation of different individuals within a household. We examine intrahousehold decision‐making dynamics that shape smallholder households' decision to use mechanical rice transplanting (MRT), a technology that disproportionately influences demand for women's labor. To study the adoption decision, we experimentally estimate the willingness to pay for MRT services both at the individual and household level. We find that women value MRT more than men, especially when they participate in transplanting on their own farms. This preference heterogeneity is evident in the unconditional differences between women's and men's valuation and differences conditional on their individual observable characteristics. Despite having stronger preferences for MRT, women have less influence on the household's technology adoption decision than men. This differential influence over the MRT adoption decision reflects the intrahousehold power structure: in households where women have less control over assets, they also have less influence over the MRT adoption decision. Our results highlight how technological changes interact with unobserved, gender‐based intrahousehold power relations to influence agricultural production decisions and, by extension, the gendered allocation of labor and welfare of women.