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Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique

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Author Info
Bandiera, Oriana
Rasul, Imran

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Abstract

Despite their potentially strong impact on poverty, agricultural innovations are often adopted slowly. Using a unique household dataset on sunflower adoption in Mozambique, we analyse whether and how individual adoption decisions depend upon the choices of others in the same social networks. Since farmers anticipate that they will share information with others, we expect farmers to be more likely to adopt when they know many other adopters. Dynamic considerations, however, suggest that farmers who know many adopters might strategically delay adoption to free-ride on the information gathered by others. We present empirical evidence that shows that the relationship between the probability of adoption and the number of known adopters is shaped as an inverse-U. In line with information sharing, the network effect is stronger for farmers who report discussing agriculture with others. The data contains information that is needed to ameliorate the identification issues that commonly arise in this context. In particular social networks are precisely identified, and in addition we can control for village hetereogeneity and for endogenous group formation.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 3341.

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Date of creation: Apr 2002
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:3341

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Keywords: information sharing social networks technology adoption

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O12 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O31 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Christopher Udry, 2003. "Fieldwork, Economic Theory, and Research on Institutions in Developing Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 107-111, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Pramila Krishnan & Emanuela Sciubba, 2006. "Links and Architecture in Village Networks," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 0614, Birkbeck, School of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Raquel Fernandez, 2007. "Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labor Force Participation over a Century," NBER Working Papers 13373, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Timothy G. Conley & Christopher R. Udry, 2005. "Learning about a new technology: pineapple in Ghana," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Giorgio Topa & Stephen Ross & Patrick Bayer, 2005. "Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes," Working Papers 05-23, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Adaman, Fikret & Ardic, Oya Pinar & Tuzemen, Didem, 2006. "Network Effects in Risk Sharing and Credit Market Access: Evidence from Istanbul," MPRA Paper 4078, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Dec 2006. [Downloadable!]
  7. Marcel Fafchamps & Flore Gubert, 2005. "The Formation of Risk Sharing Networks," Working Papers DT/2005/13, DIAL (Développement, Institutions & Analyses de Long terme). [Downloadable!]
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  8. Timothy Conley & Fredrick Flyer & Grace Tsiang, 2003. "Spillovers from Local Market Human Capital and the Spatial Distribution of Productivity in Malaysia," Advances in Economic Analysis & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1229-1229. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Nair, Harikesh S. & Manchanda, Puneet & Bhatia, Tulikaa, 2006. "Asymmetric Peer Effects in Physician Prescription Behavior: The Role of Opinion Leaders," Research Papers 1970, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Koellinger, Ph.D & Schade, C., 2008. "Acceleration of Technology Adoption within Firms: Empirical Evidence from the Diffusion of E-business Technologies," Research Paper ERS-2008-013-ORG Revision, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus Uni. [Downloadable!]
  12. Katleen Van den Broeck & Stefan Dercon, 2007. "Social Interactions in Growing Bananas: Evidence from a Tanzanian Village," Discussion Papers 07-08, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  13. Krishnan, P. & Sciubba, E., 2004. "Links and Architecture in Village Networks (previously: Endogenous Network Formation and Informal Institutions in Village Economies)," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0462, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
  14. Fernández, Raquel, 2007. "Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labour Force Participation Over a Century," CEPR Discussion Papers 6451, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel, 2006. "The Illusion of Sustainability," Center for International and Development Economics Research, Working Paper Series 1059, Center for International and Development Economics Research, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley. [Downloadable!]
  16. Bruce A. Weinberg, 2007. "Social Interactions with Endogenous Associations," NBER Working Papers 13038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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