Who Influences Whom? Gender Peer Effects on Edge-of-Field Practice Adoption in the Midwest U.S

Edge-of-field conservation practices can reduce nutrient losses from agricultural landscapes, but adoption remains limited, especially for structural practices that require land-use change and program participation. This paper examines whether the gender of farmer messengers affects Iowa farmers’ willingness to adopt water quality enhancement wetlands (WQEW). We use a 2024 online survey experiment in which farmers and landowners were randomly assigned to receive no supplemental information or farmer-messenger treatments that varied messenger gender, delivery format, and wildlife-benefit content. Respondents then answered a dichotomous-choice contingent valuation question under randomized cost-share offers. Logit models with respondent gender interactions show strongly gender-asymmetric messenger effects. Female farmers respond much more strongly to male farmer messengers than to female farmer messengers, and male messengers largely close the predicted adoption gap between female and male farmers. Male farmers, by contrast, are largely messenger-neutral. Message format also matters: a video treatment with wildlife benefits reduces the messenger-gender gap among female farmers. Willingness-to-accept estimates show that respondents are relatively insensitive to the offered cost-share range and often require compensation above full cost reimbursement. The information treatments have economically meaningful shadow values, especially for female farmers, by lowering implied compensation requirements for WQEW adoption.