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Abstract
This paper uses conditional quantile regression to analyze the effects of genetically modified (GM)
seed technology and management on production risk in agriculture, with an application to the
distribution of corn yield in Wisconsin. Using the certainty equivalent (CE) as a welfare measure,
our analysis decomposes the welfare effects of risk, management, and agricultural technology
into two parts: mean effects and risk premium (measuring the cost of risk). We document
how biotechnology and management interact to improve agricultural productivity and reduce
farm risk exposure. For corn, we find that GM European Corn Borer (GM-ECB) technology
consistently increases CE (the increase ranging from +4.6% to +11.8%) and that a significant
part of this increase can come from risk reduction. We also show that the benefits of the GMECB
biotechnology are heterogeneous: they vary significantly across regions as well as across
management schemes