IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/ajagec/v106y2024i3p1141-1166.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social networks and technology adoption: Evidence from church mergers in the U.S. Midwest

Author

Listed:
  • Fiona Burlig
  • Andrew W. Stevens

Abstract

How do social networks impact technology adoption? Exploiting a natural experiment in the mid‐20th century U.S. Upper Midwest, we find that social network expansions, in the form of mergers between congregations of the American Lutheran Church, led to increased rates of agricultural technology adoption among farmers. In counties that experienced a merger, the number of farms using chemical fertilizer increased by over 5%, and the total fertilized acreage increased by over 10% relative to counties without a merger. These effects are consistent with increased information sharing between farmers due to congregational mergers.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiona Burlig & Andrew W. Stevens, 2024. "Social networks and technology adoption: Evidence from church mergers in the U.S. Midwest," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(3), pages 1141-1166, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:ajagec:v:106:y:2024:i:3:p:1141-1166
    DOI: 10.1111/ajae.12429
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12429
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajae.12429?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:ajagec:v:106:y:2024:i:3:p:1141-1166. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8276 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.