Induced Innovations and Farm Mechanization

cal change in agriculture, then they come mainly from the public agent of farm technology-the agricultural research system; the research system should be held responsible for the social consequences of farm mechanization, and it should be budgeted and directed accordingly. On the other hand, if mechanization and exit from farming are caused mostly by external price and wage changes, the responsibility of the research system is limited principally to technology improvement. In this note we discuss the newly emerging tradition of induced innovation and its relation to the alternative explanations of machine-labor substitution in agriculture. We first clarify the conceptual basis of the induced innovation hypothesis and the related innovation possibility function. Second, we call into question the validity of some of the empirical applications. We argue that an incomplete conceptualization of the induced innovation idea has led to invalid empirical tests and to inappropriate implications on the causes of American farm mechanization.