Sooner Rather Than Later: Social Networks and Technology Adoption

Shyamal Chowdhury (), Varun Satish (), Munshi Sulaiman () and Yi Sun ()
Additional contact information
Shyamal Chowdhury: University of Sydney
Varun Satish: University of Chicago
Munshi Sulaiman: BRAC University
Yi Sun: University of Sydney

No 14307, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using data from a randomised experiment in Kenya, we estimate the causal effect of social networks on technology adoption. In this experiment, farmers were invited to information sessions about the use of Tissue Culture Banana (TCB), an in vitro banana cultivation technology. We find that an additional social connection with a treated farmer causes an untreated farmer to be 2.25 pp more likely to adopt TCB 6-18 months post-intervention, but not in the longer term. We provide evidence that the adoption of TCB by those social connections is the mechanism driving the effect; therefore, treated connections are significant because treated farmers are more likely to adopt. We also find that indirect social network effects, proxied for by eigenvector centrality, influence adoption at both the village level and the farmer level.

Keywords: agricultural technology adoption; social connections; networks; Kenya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 P36 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2021-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-net, nep-pay and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2022, 203, 466-482

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