Abstract
This paper studies the effects of the Green Revolution, one of the largest development projects in the late 20th-Century, on individualism. We use a difference-in-differences approach to investigate how rapid technological and organizational changes in traditional agriculture reshaped cultural norms in Indonesia, where Green Revolution rollout was largely driven by centralized government interventions. Regions with greater exposure to Green Revolution policies experienced significant and persistent increases in individualism (as measured by a higher prevalence of infrequent names) decades after the end of the program. Results are not driven by pre-trends and hold across a battery of robustness checks. We further document suggestive, correlational evidence of a persistent fall in community funding for public goods, a key measure of collective action. Our findings suggest that technical change can lead to rapid and persistent changes in culture.