Learning About a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana

This paper investigates the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new agricultural technology in a developing country: Ghana. We use unique data on farmers' communication patterns to define each individual's information neighborhood, the set of others from whom he might learn. Our empirical strategy is to test whether farmers change their input decisions to align with those of their neighbors who were successful in previous periods. We present evidence that farmers adopt successful neighbors' practices, conditional on many potentially confounding factors including the physical proximity of plots, credit arrangements, clan membership, and soil characteristics.

openalex: W3121286157 mag: 3121286157