The Process of an Innovation Cycle 133 



appear explicitly in the model. The innovation cycle raises in- 

 teresting welfare issues (should optimal level of schooling be a 

 policy goal or should it be optimal distribution of human capital?); 

 but such questions are outside the scope of this study. 



ILLUSTRATION: A DIFFUSION OF AN INNOVATION IN ISRAEL 



The innovation described is that of growing winter vegetables 

 under plastic covers (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers). Protective 

 tunnels constructed from long sheets of plastic material sup- 

 ported by wood or metal frames were introduced from Japan and 

 first tried in an experiment station in the mid-1950s. By the 

 mid-1960s the innovation reached all sectors of the industry. The 

 period of the study was not extended past 1967, as the integration 

 of new areas after the Arab-Israeli war in June 1967 altered mar- 

 ket conditions in agriculture in Israel. 



The data used in the illustration are areas planted to winter 

 vegetables, by sector, for the period 1958/59 to 1966/67. These 

 sectors are characterized by distinct socioeconomic traits.^ The 

 illustration is mainly a comparative analysis of the sectorial diffu- 

 sion process. Distributions of schooling, capital-labor ratio, lines 

 of activities, and areas of vegetables under plastic covers are 

 shown in table 7.1. 



A kibbutz (plural: kibbutzimf is a communal settlement of 200 

 to 2,000 inhabitants, in which production and consumption are 

 collective. The scale of operation is large, permitting specializa- 

 tion of members in a single line of production. Technology is ad- 

 vanced, schooling and capital-labor ratio are the highest in the in- 

 dustry (table 7.1). 



A moshav (plural moshavim) is a settlement in which farmers 

 operate their private family farms but cooperate in marketing and 

 the purchasing of inputs and services. Schooling and capital in- 

 tensity in the moshav are lower than that of the kibbutz (table 

 7.1). Also, scale of operation is much smaller, most farms are 



8. See Kanovsky (1966), Wintraub, Lissak, Azmon (1971) for detailed descrip- 

 tions and additional references. 



9. The sector of moshav shiluji wi\.h collective production and private consump- 

 tion was included with the kibbutz. 



