Selective Trials for Agricultural Technology Evaluation and Adoption

Last registered on December 31, 2013

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Selective Trials for Agricultural Technology Evaluation and Adoption
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000183
First published
December 31, 2013, 5:24 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Princeton University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Caltech
PI Affiliation
Princeton University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2014-01-01
End date
2020-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study aims to gain a greater understanding of heterogeneity between individuals in willingness to experiment with new technologies, how dispersed information on willingness to experiment is within a community, and how that information can be used to allocate subsidies for new (experience-good) technologies in a way that enables learning about the potential returns to the technology faster and thus maximizes long-run technology adoption. Our experiment focuses on an agricultural hip-pump designed to be used for vegetable growing during the dry season. The experiment will consist of several possible "introductory subsidy schemes" randomized at the village level. Within a village, farmers whose land is suitable for pump use will either be a) randomly assigned to receive a voucher for a free pump, with uniform odds b) randomly assigned to receive a voucher for a free pump with the odds depending on willingness to pay (either in cash (b1) or in time (b2)), or c) be randomly assigned to receive a voucher for a free pump with the odds depending on other’s views on that individual's willingness to experiment. We will compare, across treatments, short-term usage of the pump, knowledge of the pump within the village, long-run adoption, and vegetable farming income among adopters and non-adopters.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chassang, Sylvain, Pascaline Dupas and Erik Snowberg. 2013. "Selective Trials for Agricultural Technology Evaluation and Adoption." AEA RCT Registry. December 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.183-1.0
Former Citation
Chassang, Sylvain, Pascaline Dupas and Erik Snowberg. 2013. "Selective Trials for Agricultural Technology Evaluation and Adoption." AEA RCT Registry. December 31. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/183/history/799
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Between 200-300 villages with reasonable geographic separation from each other, and easy access to water for irrigation (for example, near a stream), will be selected to be randomized among different treatment arms.
Intervention Start Date
2014-01-13
Intervention End Date
2014-12-19

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
short-term usage of the pump, short-term information about the pump, knowledge of the pump within the village, long-run adoption, and farming income.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
-short-term usage: rate of pump usage among those farmers who received voucher for the free pump. Approximate number of times a week farmer uses the pump, approximate hours per day that the farmer uses the pump, approximate times a week that the farmer loans / rents out the pump during the next dry season after the intervention.
-information about the pump: the farmer’s assessment of how difficult it is to use the pump, how useful it is, how many times they had issues / had to repair the pump
-knowledge of the pump in the village: neighbors will be asked for their impressions of the pump on the dimensions above, and this will be compared to the farmer’s own reports
-long-run adoption: how many people in the village have purchased a pump (using a 5% off voucher supplied to all participants) within 24 months of the pumps introduction into the village.
-vegetable farming income: farmer and randomly selected neighbors will be asked about their revenue from vegetable farming

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will locate 200-300 clusters of suitable farms (what we call "villages", with typically 12-25 suitable farms) with easy access to water. These villages will be randomized to one of five treatment arms: control, random assignment, willingness to pay (WTP) elicited with cash, willingness to pay elicited with a task, and group assignment. In the control no one will receive a voucher for a free pump. In the random assignment, farmers will be randomly assigned to receive a voucher for a free pump. In the WTP-cash, farmers will be randomly assigned with a probability that depends on their willingness to bear part of the cost for the pump. In WTP-task, farmers will be randomly assigned with a probability that depends on their willingness to complete a physical task. In the group assignment, farmers will be randomly assigned with a probability that depends on votes received from others in the village.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Village to treatment arm, and individual within village.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
200-300 Villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
3000-4000 farmers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
4 Treatment arms: 1) Control, 2) WTP-Cash, 3) WTP-Task 4) Group Allocation.
Exact sample sizes to be determined one some baseline data has been collected and power calculations can be done.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Maseno University Ethics Review Committee
IRB Approval Date
2013-11-18
IRB Approval Number
000052/13
IRB Name
Innovations for Poverty Action IRB-USA
IRB Approval Date
2013-10-18
IRB Approval Number
13October - 002
IRB Name
Stanford IRB
IRB Approval Date
2013-09-13
IRB Approval Number
28662

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials