Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India
Studies on social learning and technology adoption often only consider the networks of a single individual in a household as a source of information influencing agricultural production decisions. We test the validity of this assumption by examining the role of men’s and women’s social networks in th...
| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Elsevier
2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177227 |
| _version_ | 1855527657614082048 |
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| author | Gulati, Kajal Magnan, Nicholas Lybbert, Travis J. Spielman, David J. |
| author_browse | Gulati, Kajal Lybbert, Travis J. Magnan, Nicholas Spielman, David J. |
| author_facet | Gulati, Kajal Magnan, Nicholas Lybbert, Travis J. Spielman, David J. |
| author_sort | Gulati, Kajal |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Studies on social learning and technology adoption often only consider the networks of a single individual in a household as a source of information influencing agricultural production decisions. We test the validity of this assumption by examining the role of men’s and women’s social networks in the adoption of a novel water-saving technology, laser land leveling (LLL), in India. Using network data from men and women in the same household, we test the influence of being connected to an adopter on demand for LLL. We identify the causal gender-specific network effects using a field experiment that combines an auction with a lottery for the technology, making the presence of adopters in networks exogenous. The data reveal that men’s and women’s networks vary in size and show little overlap. We find that whereas household demand for LLL increases when men are linked to an LLL-adopting household, it decreases when the network linkages run through women. These gender-differentiated effects are concentrated in households where the woman’s opinion about the technology is valued by the man and in non-poor households. The results highlight that social learning may interact with the socio-demographic characteristics of households in myriad ways to influence household technology adoption decisions, and that agricultural-based information interventions ought to also consider how information gets used in the household.
JEL classification: D13; Q12; Q16 |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace177227 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| publisherStr | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1772272025-12-08T09:54:28Z Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India Gulati, Kajal Magnan, Nicholas Lybbert, Travis J. Spielman, David J. agricultural technology capacity development gender social networks technology adoption Studies on social learning and technology adoption often only consider the networks of a single individual in a household as a source of information influencing agricultural production decisions. We test the validity of this assumption by examining the role of men’s and women’s social networks in the adoption of a novel water-saving technology, laser land leveling (LLL), in India. Using network data from men and women in the same household, we test the influence of being connected to an adopter on demand for LLL. We identify the causal gender-specific network effects using a field experiment that combines an auction with a lottery for the technology, making the presence of adopters in networks exogenous. The data reveal that men’s and women’s networks vary in size and show little overlap. We find that whereas household demand for LLL increases when men are linked to an LLL-adopting household, it decreases when the network linkages run through women. These gender-differentiated effects are concentrated in households where the woman’s opinion about the technology is valued by the man and in non-poor households. The results highlight that social learning may interact with the socio-demographic characteristics of households in myriad ways to influence household technology adoption decisions, and that agricultural-based information interventions ought to also consider how information gets used in the household. JEL classification: D13; Q12; Q16 2026-01 2025-10-20T19:38:47Z 2025-10-20T19:38:47Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177227 en https://doi.org/10.1086/695284 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.05.003 Open Access Elsevier Gulati, Kajal; Magnan, Nicholas; Lybbert, Travis J.; and Spielman, David J. 2025. Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India. World Development 197(January 2026): 107182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107182 |
| spellingShingle | agricultural technology capacity development gender social networks technology adoption Gulati, Kajal Magnan, Nicholas Lybbert, Travis J. Spielman, David J. Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India |
| title | Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India |
| title_full | Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India |
| title_fullStr | Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India |
| title_short | Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India |
| title_sort | gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in india |
| topic | agricultural technology capacity development gender social networks technology adoption |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177227 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gulatikajal genderednetworksanddemandforanagriculturaltechnologyinindia AT magnannicholas genderednetworksanddemandforanagriculturaltechnologyinindia AT lybberttravisj genderednetworksanddemandforanagriculturaltechnologyinindia AT spielmandavidj genderednetworksanddemandforanagriculturaltechnologyinindia |