In 1996, Bt cotton became one of the first genetically engineered crops to
be available commercially. This study focuses on the various sources and qu
ality of information about Bt cotton profitability available to farmers in
the Southeast and assesses the relative importance of such information in t
he farmers' adoption decisions. A model of the individual decision to adopt
is developed to incorporate two recent theories of the role of information
quality (the "effective information" hypothesis and the "popularity" hypot
hesis), as well as the effect of current technology depreciation. The data
show some support for all three factors as determinants of adoption.