Description:

Hossein Alidaee (Northwestern University): "Is Context a Mechanism Behind Social Learning? A Proposal for a Lab Experiment"

Abstract: Information acquisition is central to technology adoption decisions. Two common sources of information about returns include (i) central sources, such as government information campaigns, and (ii) social learning from peers. Central sources often have greater data on returns—yet, we lack empirical evidence that social learning is less persuasive. Understanding social learning's efficacy is particularly important for technologies where returns are highly heterogeneous and information acquisition is a major barrier to adoption. I propose one potential mechanism, which I refer to as context uncertainty. I will test this mechanism via a lab-in-the-field experiment with a sample of smallholder farmers. If valid, this mechanism provides a framework to improve informational interventions from central sources.