Manaswini Rao

Manaswini Rao

Assistant Professor of Economics

Published Papers

Seeding the Seeds: Role of Social Structure in Agricultural Technology Diffusion (joint with Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet)

Type: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2025

Exploiting a two-stage randomized introduction of flood resistant seeds in rural Odisha, India, we find that the local social structure (the jati caste system) has a significant influence on diffusion of the technology. First, modest overall differences in adoption between treated and control villages is largely explained by the substantial heterogeneity in village-level jati fractionalization. Second, we find immediate diffusion among non-recipient farmers in the same jati groups as the initial, treated recipients and lower diffusion among lower status jatis. These findings highlight the limitations of randomized introduction of technology in a context of weak markets and closed social structures. Link to AEA Trial Registry.

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Got (Clean) Milk?: Organization, Incentives, and Management in Indian Dairy Cooperatives (joint with Ashish Shenoy)

Type: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2023

Much smallholder production in developing countries takes place in groups that enforce production norms and mediate internal allocation of surplus. We evaluate incentive contracts for quality upgrading among such production teams. In a randomized experiment with rural Indian dairy cooperatives, we find group incentives improve aggregate quality even when individual quality cannot be traced, with evidence of increased effort from both producers and managers. However, several cooperative managers decline incentive payments when local elites cannot control payment-related information disclosure. Survey evidence suggests disclosure introduces frictions, implying that some efforts to limit elite capture may undermine broader development goals. Link to AEA Trial Registry. Link to Open Access Pub.

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