Keep It Simple: A field experiment on information sharing in social networks

Catia Batista, Pedro Vicente and Marcel Fafchamps

NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA

Abstract: In this paper, we study information sharing through text messages among rural Mozambicans with access to mobile money. For this purpose, we conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment involving exogeneously assigned information links. In the base game mobile money users receive an SMS containing information on how to redeem a voucher for mobile money. They are then given an opportunity to share this information with other subjects. We find that participants have a low propensity to redeem the voucher. They nonetheless share the information with others, and many subjects share information they do not use themselves, consistent with warm glow. We observe that there is more information sharing when communication is entirely anonymous, and we uncover no evidence of homophily in information sharing. We introduce various treatments: varying the cost of information sharing; being shamed for not sending vouchers; and allowing subjects to appropriate (part of) the value of the shared information. All these treatments decrease information sharing. The main implication is that, to encourage information sharing, the best is to keep it simple.

Keywords: Information; lab-in-the-field experiment; mobile money; Mozambique; NOVAFRICA; social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-knm, nep-net, nep-pay and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Keep It Simple: A Field Experiment on Information Sharing in Social Networks (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unl:novafr:wp1801

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