Can Targeting Information to Network-Central Farmers Induce More Adoption of a New Agricultural Technology?

March 09, 2021

In the paper titled "Can Network Theory-based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?," the authors combine social network data and a field experiment in 200 villages in Malawi to find that targeting central farmers is important to spur the diffusion process. Their results imply that farmers need to learn from multiple people before they adopt themselves. This means that without proper targeting of information, the diffusion process can stall, slowing technology adoption.