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Peer effects and externalities in technology adoption: Evidence from community reporting in Uganda∗
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ferrali, Romain Grossman, Guy Platas, Melina R. Rodden, Jonathan A. |
| Copyright Year | 2017 |
| Abstract | Do social networks matter for the adoption of new political communication technologies? We collect complete social network data for sixteen Ugandan villages where an innovative reporting mobile platform was recently introduced, and show robust evidence of peer effects on technology adoption. However, peer effects were not observed in all networks. We develop a formal model showing that while peer effects facilitate adoption of technologies with minimal externalities (like agricultural practices), it can be more difficult for innovations with significant positive externalities to spread through a network. Early adopters might exaggerate benefits, leading others to discount information about the technology’s value. Thus, peer effects are likely to emerge only where informal institutions support truthful communication. We show that the observable implications of our model are borne out in the data. These impediments to social diffusion might help explain the slow and varied uptake of new political communication technologies around the world. ∗We gratefully acknowledge the support and cooperation of members of the Arua district local government, as well as RTI, GAPP, UNICEF Uganda, USAID/Uganda, and the USAID Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, without whom this study would not have been possible. We thank Innovations for Poverty Action Uganda for excellent research assistance and data collection. Jon Helfers, Maximillian Seunik, Areum Han and Zachary Tausanovich provided valuable research assistance at various stages of the project. We received helpful feedback from USAID Uganda, DFID Uganda, GAPP, and district officials at a stakeholder meeting in Arua in late 2016, as well as from participants at seminars in Brigham Young University, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. We are thankful to SEED at the Stanford GSB for financial support. Finally, we are grateful to the thousands of Arua residents who so generously shared their time with us over multiple periods of data collection. We hope our findings can serve to make programs such as U-Bridge successful in improving communication and ultimately service delivery in Arua and beyond. †Department of Political Science, Princeton University. ferrali@princeton.edu ‡Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania & EGAP. ggros@sas.upenn.edu §Division of Social Science, New York University Abu Dhabi. mplatas@nyu.edu ¶Department of Political Science, Stanford University. jrodden@stanford.edu |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.2139/ssrn.3107855 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5761e0e7d1758ead80bca408/t/5ace887b8a922d50076d57b7/1523484799903/FGPR_January2018.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/FGPR_January2018.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/download.cgi?db_name=CSAE2018&paper_id=393 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3107855 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
