Social Learning and Communication

Ariel BenYishay and Ahmed Mobarak

No 20139, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Low adoption of agricultural technologies holds large productivity consequences for developing countries. Agricultural extension services counter information failures by deploying external agents to communicate with farmers. However, social networks are recognized as the most credible source of information about new technologies. We incorporate social learning in extension policy using a large-scale field experiment in which we communicate to farmers using different members of social networks. We show that communicator effort is susceptible to small performance incentives, and the social identity of the communicator influences learning and adoption. Farmers find communicators who face agricultural conditions and constraints most comparable to themselves to be the most persuasive. Incorporating communication dynamics can take the influential social learning literature in a more policy-relevant direction.

JEL-codes: O13 O33 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-exp and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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