The Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961) and farm households’ adoption of technology: evidence from China

The diffusion of new technology is an important driver of agricultural development, especially in the developing world. In this research, we follow the persistence of major historical events, employing a difference-in-differences method to carefully examine the long-term effect of China’s 1959–1961 famine on farm households’ current decisions to adopt technology. Further, we combine a mediating regression procedure with a bootstrap method to explore the mechanism of impact in this relationship. Overall, this study provides strong empirical evidence that the Great Famine attenuated technology adoption; moreover, a 1% increase in exposure to famine in childhood and adolescence resulted in a 0.137% decrease in the probability of technology adoption when controlling for village dummies. An analysis of mediating effects reveals that risk preferences account for the channel of famine persistence.