Chat Over Coffee? Diffusion of Agronomic Practices and Market Spillovers in Rwanda

Esther Duflo, Daniel Keniston, Tavneet Suri and Zipfel, Céline

No 18215, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Agricultural extension programs often train a few farmers and count on diffusion through social networks for the innovation to spread. However, if markets are imperfectly integrated, this may also inflict negative externalities. In a two-step experiment of an agronomy training program among Rwandan coffee farmers, we first randomize the concentration of trainees at the village level and then randomly select within each village. Knowledge increased, and yields were 6.7% higher for trained farmers. We find no evidence of social diffusion; instead, control households experienced negative spillovers in high treatment concentration areas, likely because of competition for a scarce input, fertilizer.

JEL-codes: O12 Q13 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18215 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
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:cpr:ceprdp:18215

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18215

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().