Experimental Design
This project uses a randomized controlled trial to explore strategies of promoting new technologies using the power of social influence. The randomized controlled trial varied the dissemination method for two new agricultural technologies across villages in Malawi. The role of main communicator about the new technology was assigned to government-employed extension workers, 'lead farmers' who are educated and able to sustain experimentation costs, or 'peer farmers,' who are more representative of the general population and whose experiences may be more applicable to the average recipient farmer's own conditions. Random subsets of these communicators were offered performance-based incentives in the experimental design.