Information Networks among Women and Men and the Demand for an Agricultural Technology in India

Nicholas Magnan (), David Spielman, Kajal Gulati and Travis Lybbert

No 212209, 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Although there is ample evidence of differences in how and where men and women acquire information, most research on learning household decision-making only considers access to information for a single, typically male, household head. This assumption is problematic in developing-country agriculture, where women play a fundamental role in farming. Using gender-disaggregated social network data from Uttar Pradesh, India, we analyze agricultural information networks among men and women.We test for gender-specific network effects on demand for laser land leveling—a resource-conserving technology—using data from a field experiment that combines a BDM auction with a lottery. We find that factors determining male and female links are similar, although there is little overlap between male and female networks. We also find evidence of female network effects on household technology demand, although male network effects are clearly stronger. Results indicate that extension services can better leverage female networks to promote new technologies.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-net
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/212209/files/M ... he%20Demand-1014.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Information networks among women and men and the demand for an agricultural technology in India (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae15:212209

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.212209

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().