Can Network Theory-Based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?

Beaman, Lori; BenYishay, Ariel; Magruder, Jeremy; Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3225815

Cited by 55 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…-Salvador Dalí To diffuse information by word-of-mouth and influence behavior in a community, one needs to identify and seed the information via central individuals. 1 Moreover, as shown in Banerjee, Chandrasekhar, Duflo, and Jackson (2013) and Beaman, BenYishay, Magruder, and Mobarak (2014), even though many measures of centrality are correlated, successful diffusion requires seeding information via people who are central according to specific measures. A practical challenge is that the relevant centrality measures are based on extensive network information, which can be costly and time consuming to collect in many settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Gossips to Spread Information: Theory and Evidence from Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Banerjee

Chandrasekhar

Duflo

et al. 2019

The Review of Economic Studies

194

167

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Is it possible to identify individuals who are highly central in a community without gathering any network information, simply by asking a few people? If we use people's nominees as seeds for a diffusion process, will it be successful? We explore these questions theoretically, via surveys, and via field experiments. We show via a model of information flow how members of a community can, just by tracking gossip about others, identify highly central individuals in their network. Asking villagers in rural Indian villages to name good seeds for diffusion, we find that they accurately nominate those who are central according to a measure tailored for diffusion -not just those with many friends or in powerful positions. Finally, we run a randomized field experiment in 213 other villages that tests how effective it is to use such nominations as seeds for a diffusion process. Relative to random seeds or those with high social status, hitting at least one seed nominated by villagers leads to more than a 65% increase in the spread of information.JEL Classification Codes: D85, D13, L14, O12, Z13

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Gossips to Spread Information: Theory and Evidence from Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Banerjee

Chandrasekhar

Duflo

et al. 2019

The Review of Economic Studies

194

167

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“…9 Batista and Vicente (2018) show that the randomized introduction of mobile 8 For example, Conley and Udry (2010) showed how information transmission between farmers was particularly important for investment especially by inexperienced farmers who looked mostly at the experience of more seasoned farmers facing similar circumstances. More recently, Beaman et al (2015), and Ben Yishay and Mobarak (2018) have further detailed how farmer networks and network theory may be used to promote agricultural investment in a policy relevant manner. 9 Jack et al (2013) and Jack and Suri (2014) show that the consumption of households with access to M-PESA is not hurt by idiosyncratic shocks, which implies that decreased transaction costs for transfers money in rural areas of Mozambique decreased the transaction costs of migrant remittances so that these not only improved insurance to shocks, but also prompted increased migration out of rural areas and less agricultural investment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving access to savings through mobile money: Experimental evidence from African smallholder farmers

Batista

Vicente

2020

World Development

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.Investment in improved agricultural inputs is infrequent for smallholder farmers in Africa. One barrier may be limited access to formal savings. This is the first study to use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of using mobile money as a tool to promote agricultural investment. For this purpose, we designed and conducted a field experiment with a sample of smallholder farmers in rural Mozambique. This sample included a set of primary farmers and their closest farming friends. We work with two cross-randomized interventions. The first treatment gave access to a remunerated mobile savings account. The second treatment targeted closest farming friends and gave them access to the exact same interventions as their primary farmer counterparts. We find that the remunerated mobile savings account raised mobile savings, but only while interest was being paid. It also increased agricultural investment in fertilizer, although there was no change in investment in other complementary inputs that were not directly targeted by the intervention, unlike fertilizer. These results suggest that fertilizer salience in the remunerated savings treatment may have been important to focus farmers' (limited) attention on saving some of their harvest proceeds, rather than farmers being financially constrained by a lack of alternative ways to save. Our results also suggest that the network intervention where farming friends had access to non-remunerated mobile money accounts decreased incentives to save and invest in agricultural inputs, likely due to network free-riding because of lower transfer costs within the network. Overall this research shows that tailored mobile money products can be used effectively to improve modern agricultural technology adoption in countries with very low agricultural productivity like Mozambique. JEL Classification:D14, D85, Q12, Q14Nova SBE for useful comments. We are particularly grateful to Carteira Móvel, Mcel, and the International Growth Centre for fruitful collaboration in Mozambique. Nadean Szafman and his team, and Mindy Hernandez offered important inputs to this project for which we are most thankful. Finally, we would like to extend an appreciative word to the group of enumerators with whom we worked. IRB approval was secured from Innovations for Poverty Action. We wish to acknowledge financial support from ATAI at MIT, and USAID. All errors are our responsibility.

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“…In Malawi, Beaman et al. () show that farmers need several information sources to relax risk and information constraints and induce adoption of new seeds. Also in Malawi, BenYishay and Mobarak () test various methods of using social networks to ease information constraints.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: evidence from a randomized control trial

Abate

Bernard

Brauw

et al. 2018

Agricultural Economics

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In 2013, Ethiopia's Agricultural Transformation Agency introduced the Wheat Initiative to increase smallholder productivity. In this article, we measure the impacts of the Wheat Initiative package of technologies, and its marketing assistance component alone, on yields among a promotional group of farmers. The package includes improved techniques, improved inputs, and a guaranteed market for the crop. Relying on crop‐cut measures and farmers’ own assessments, we find that full package led to an average 14% higher yields. Implementation of the Wheat Initiative was successful in making certified seed and fertilizer accessible to farmers and increasing their uptake, though only 61% of the intervention group adopted row planting and few farmers received marketing assistance. The measured yield difference may underestimate the true yield difference associated with the technology because of incomplete adoption of the recommended practices by intervention farmers and adoption of some practices by control farmers.

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Can Network Theory-Based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?

Cited by 55 publications

References 23 publications

Using Gossips to Spread Information: Theory and Evidence from Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Using Gossips to Spread Information: Theory and Evidence from Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Improving access to savings through mobile money: Experimental evidence from African smallholder farmers

The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: evidence from a randomized control trial

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