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Keep It Simple: A field experiment on information sharing in social networks

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  • Catia Batista
  • Pedro Vicente
  • Marcel Fafchamps

Abstract

In this paper, we study information sharing through text messages among rural Mozambicans with access to mobile money. For this purpose, we conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment involving exogeneously assigned information links. In the base game mobile money users receive an SMS containing information on how to redeem a voucher for mobile money. They are then given an opportunity to share this information with other subjects. We find that participants have a low propensity to redeem the voucher. They nonetheless share the information with others, and many subjects share information they do not use themselves, consistent with warm glow. We observe that there is more information sharing when communication is entirely anonymous, and we uncover no evidence of homophily in information sharing. We introduce various treatments: varying the cost of information sharing; being shamed for not sending vouchers; and allowing subjects to appropriate (part of) the value of the shared information. All these treatments decrease information sharing. The main implication is that, to encourage information sharing, the best is to keep it simple.

Suggested Citation

  • Catia Batista & Pedro Vicente & Marcel Fafchamps, 2018. "Keep It Simple: A field experiment on information sharing in social networks," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp1801, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    • Handle: RePEc:unl:novafr:wp1801
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    1. Julia Seither, 2021. "Keeping up with the Joneses: economic impacts of overconfidence in micro-entrepreneurs," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2108, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information; lab-in-the-field experiment; mobile money; Mozambique; NOVAFRICA; social networks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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