Keep It Simple: A Field Experiment on Information Sharing among Strangers

Catia Batista, Marcel Fafchamps and Pedro Vicente

No 14780, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: SMS information campaigns are increasingly used for policy. We conduct a field experiment to study information sharing through mobile phone messages. Subjects are rural households in Mozambique who have access to mobile money. In the baseline intervention, subjects receive an SMS containing simple instructions on how to redeem a voucher for mobile money. They can share this non-rival information with other exogenously assigned subjects unknown to them. We find that few participants redeem the voucher. They nonetheless share it with others and many share information about the voucher they do not use themselves. Information is shared more when communication is anonymous and we find no evidence of more sharing with subjects who have similar characteristics. We introduce treatments to increase the cost of sending a message, shame those who do not send the voucher to others, or allow subjects to appropriate the value of information. All these treatments decrease information sharing. To encourage information diffusion among strangers, the best is to 'keep it simple'.

Keywords: SMS information campaign; nudging; mobile money; anonymity; empathy; shared identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 D83 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2021-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-ict
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: World Bank Economic Review, 2022, 36 (4), 857 - 888

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp14780.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Keep It Simple: A Field Experiment on Information Sharing among Strangers (2022)
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:iza:izadps:dp14780

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().