Learning About a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana

Timothy Conley and Christopher Udry

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: This paper investigates the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new agricultural technology in Ghana. We use unique data on farmers’ communication patterns to define each individual’s information neighborhood, the set of others from whom he might learn. Our empirical strategy is to test whether farmers adjust their inputs to align with those of their information neighbors who were surprisingly successful in previous periods. We present evidence that farmers adopt surprisingly successful neighbors’ practices, conditional on many potentially confounding factors including common growing conditions, credit arrangements, clan membership, and religion. The relationship of these input adjustments to experience further supports their interpretation as resulting from social learning. In addition, we apply our methods to input choices for another crop with known technology and they correctly indicate an absence of social learning effects.

Keywords: Social Learning; Technology; Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 O13 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2000-07, Revised 2004-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-cbe, nep-dev and nep-ino
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp817revised.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Learning about a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana (2010)
Journal Article: Learning about a new technology: pineapple in Ghana (2005)
Working Paper: Learning About a New Technology: Pineapple In Ghana (2000)
Working Paper: Learning about a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana (2000)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egc:wpaper:817

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