TY  - JOUR
AU  - Olmstead,Alan L.
AU  - Rhode,Paul W.
TI  - The Diffusion of the Tractor in American Agriculture: 1910-60
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7947
PY  - 2000
Y2  - October 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7947
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7947.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alan Olmstead
Alan L. Olmstead
1233 Fordham Dr.
Davis
CA 95616
Tel: 530-756-2395
E-Mail: alolmstead@ucdavis.edu

Paul Rhode
Economics Department
University of Michigan
205 Lorch Hall
611 Tappan St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
Tel: 734/647-5603
Fax: 734/764-2769
E-Mail: pwrhode@umich.edu
AB  - This paper examines the impact and diffusion of the gasoline tractor in American agriculture.  A key feature of the transition from horses to tractors was a long intermediate stage when both modes of power were used on the same farm.  This is largely explained in the technical limitations of early tractors.  In addition, we explore how rural markets and institutions adjusted to facilitate diffusion.  Our simultaneous-equation regression analysis reveals that farm scale and tractor adoption had positive, independent effects on each other.  Finally, we analyze diffusion as a capital replacement problem, which reveals that the shift to the new technology came far sooner than has generally been thought.
ER  -