Seeding the Seeds: Role of Social Structure in Agricultural Technology Diffusion (joint with Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet), Accepted at Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Type: Accepted, 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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