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Externality Effects of Education: Dynamics of the Adoption and Diffusion of an Innovation in Rural Ethiopia

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  • Weir, Sharada
  • Knight, John

Abstract

This article investigates the role of schooling at the household and community levels in the adoption and diffusion of agricultural innovations in rural Ethiopia. We find that household-level education is important to the timing of adoption but less crucial to the question of whether a household has ever adopted fertilizer (since those without schooling may eventually copy the educated). Community-level education substitutes for low levels of household education, encouraging uneducated farmers to adopt sooner than would be predicted in the absence of educated neighbors. Moreover, community-level education is complementary to household education in determining which farmers will eventually adopt. Thus, evidence is presented to suggest that there are two externality effects: educated farmers are early innovators, providing an example that may be copied by less-educated farmers; and educated farmers are better able to copy those who innovate first, enhancing diffusion of the new technology more widely within the site.

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  • Weir, Sharada & Knight, John, 2004. "Externality Effects of Education: Dynamics of the Adoption and Diffusion of an Innovation in Rural Ethiopia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 93-113, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:y:2004:v:53:i:1:p:93-113
    DOI: 10.1086/423254
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