Learning about Farming: Innovation and Social Networks in a Resettled Community in Brazil

Arbeitspapier

We study the role of social learning in the diffusion of cash crops in a resettled village economy in northeastern Brazil. We combine detailed geo-coded data on farming plots with dyadic data on social ties among settlers, and we leverage natural exogenous variation in network formation induced by the land occupation movement and the agrarian reform. By using longitudinal data on farming decisions over 15 years we find consistent evidence of significant peer effects in the decision to farm new cash fruits (pineapple and passion fruit). Our results suggest that social diffusion is heterogeneous along observed plot and crop characteristics, i.e. farmers growing water-sensitive crop are more likely to respond to the actions of peers with similar water access conditions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14092

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Neural Networks and Related Topics ; Network Formation and Analysis: Theory ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
• Subject: technology adoption ; agrarian reform ; social networks ; peer effects ; Brazil

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Comola, Margherita ; Inguaggiato, Carla ; Mendola, Mariapia
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/232844
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET