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Price information, inter-village networks, and “bargaining spillovers”: Experimental evidence from Ghana

Author

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  • Soldani, Emilia
  • Hildebrandt, Nicole
  • Nyarko, Yaw
  • Romagnoli, Giorgia

Abstract

Through a randomized experiment and detailed data on inter-village communication, we identify the impact of providing commodity price information to smallholder farmers. For yam, a crop with high prevalence of bargaining, the intervention leads to a 9% increase in the prices received by farmers in the treatment group in the first year and possibly to mixed indirect effects in the second year in areas with high density of treatment. While control farmers do not gain price information, we speculate that bargaining spillovers might lead to indirect benefits and capture this intuition in a formal model. The intervention has no impact on other crops grown in the area, which are characterized by different market structures and lower incidence of bargaining. The results expand our understanding of the market structure characteristics that affect the effectiveness of ICT interventions and highlight the importance of considering longer-run inter-village spillover effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Soldani, Emilia & Hildebrandt, Nicole & Nyarko, Yaw & Romagnoli, Giorgia, 2023. "Price information, inter-village networks, and “bargaining spillovers”: Experimental evidence from Ghana," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:164:y:2023:i:c:s030438782300055x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103100
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Price information; Agriculture; Bargaining; ICTs; Networks; Externalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness

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