CAREER: Social Networks, Labor Markets and Agricultural Technology Adoption in Developing Countries

职业：发展中国家的社交网络、劳动力市场和农业技术采用

• 批准号: 1254380
• 负责人: Lori Beaman
• 金额: $ 40.15万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-03-01 至 2018-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1254380&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Social; Networks; Labor; Markets

Abstract Proposal Title: CAREER: Social Networks, Labor Markets and Agricultural Technology Adoption in Developing CountriesProposal Number: SES - 1254380Principal Investigator: Beaman, Lori A.This CAREER seeks to provide insights into how social networks affect economic behavior in developing countries in two key domains: labor markets and agricultural technology adoption. The starting point for the first topic -social networks and labor markets- is that a large body of evidence shows that the quantity and quality of an individual's social network influences his or her labor market outcomes. Theory suggests social networks may exist in order to address market failures such as asymmetric information. Previous work by the Principal Investigator (PI) supports that individuals have useful information about fellow network members. However, the use of social networks in hiring decisions may reinforce existing inequalities, as those with few or poor-quality network connections could be further isolated from job opportunities. Women in particular report using social networks less often and also have worse labor market outcomes on average. Using a recruitment experiment in Malawi, the project looks at whether women are disadvantaged by referrals, and if so, why? The second area is agricultural technology adoption: An important puzzle in development economics is why farmers do not use simple and seemingly profit-enhancing technologies. While there may be numerous constraints to technology adoption, imperfect information about the technologies could be an important factor. This project asks how social networks can be harnessed to improve the dissemination of information. The research also relates to recent work in economic theory on how network structure affects the diffusion process. Several interrelated projects in this area seek to answer empirical questions, including: 1) Do individuals with more agricultural experience generate positive spillovers to their neighbors? 2) Can agricultural extension agents partner with well-connected farmers to increase technology adoption? 3) Which social network characteristics (betweenness, degree, eigenvector centrality) of seed farmers most influence diffusion of information on new agricultural technologies? 4) Does targeting well-connected farmers come at the cost of increased inequality of knowledge within rural villages? These projects all employ novel data collected to precisely answer these questions, including social network censuses of many villages in Mali and Malawi. New methodologies are also used, such as integrating theory into a field experiment by using simulation of diffusion models and baseline social network data to determine which farmers in Malawi should receive training on new technologies.Broader Impacts: One limitation of much of the previous research on social networks is that there are few policy implications. Policymakers can rarely alter people?s social networks. An objective of this CAREER project is to find ways in which policymakers can use the deep social networks which exist in developing country contexts to improve the effectiveness of policy --in particular to increase the adoption of simple agricultural technologies which can raise incomes and reduce poverty.

摘要提案标题：职业：社交网络、劳动力市场和发展中国家的农业技术采用建议编号：SES -1254380主要研究员：Beaman，洛里A.本职业生涯旨在提供关于社交网络如何影响发展中国家在两个关键领域的经济行为的见解：劳动力市场和农业技术采用。第一个主题--社交网络和劳动力市场--的出发点是，大量证据表明，个人社会网络的数量和质量会影响其劳动力市场的结果。理论表明，社交网络的存在可能是为了解决市场失灵，如信息不对称。主要研究者（PI）以前的工作支持个人拥有关于网络成员的有用信息。然而，在招聘决定中使用社交网络可能会加剧现有的不平等，因为那些网络联系很少或质量差的人可能会进一步被排除在就业机会之外。特别是女性，她们使用社交网络的频率更低，而且平均而言，她们在劳动力市场的结果更差。该项目利用在马拉维进行的招聘实验，研究妇女是否因推荐而处于不利地位，如果是，为什么？第二个领域是农业技术的采用：发展经济学中的一个重要难题是，为什么农民不使用简单的、似乎能提高利润的技术。虽然采用技术可能有许多限制，但有关技术的信息不完善可能是一个重要因素。该项目探讨如何利用社交网络改进信息传播。这项研究还涉及到最近的工作，在经济理论的网络结构如何影响扩散过程。这一领域的几个相互关联的项目试图回答实证问题，包括：1）具有更多农业经验的个人是否会对他们的邻居产生积极的溢出效应？2)农业推广机构能否与关系良好的农民合作，以增加技术的采用？3)种农的哪些社会网络特征（中介性、度、特征向量中心性）对农业新技术信息的传播影响最大？4)以关系密切的农民为目标是否会以农村村庄内部知识不平等加剧为代价？这些项目都采用了收集的新数据来准确回答这些问题，包括对马里和马拉维许多村庄的社交网络普查。新的方法也被使用，如通过使用扩散模型和基线社会网络数据的模拟，以确定哪些农民在马拉维应该接受新technology.Broader影响的培训整合理论到一个现场实验：一个局限性的社交网络的许多以前的研究是，很少有政策的影响。政策制定者很少能改变人？s的社交网络。这一职业项目的一个目标是，找到决策者能够利用发展中国家现有的深层社交网络提高政策效力的方法，特别是更多地采用能够提高收入和减少贫穷的简单农业技术。