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Paper Abstract
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Self-selection into social media networks makes it challenging to tease out effects of online peer interactions. In this paper, I study the effects of online interactions among farmers in rural India on their farm investments, revenues, and online information sharing behavior. I exogenously assign farmers to multi-village WhatsApp groups in an experiment spanning 108 villages in south India. I then randomly assign a subset of these farmer groups to a second treatment, involving monthly in-person meetings. I test whether farmers exchange agricultural information with their peers online, and if in-person interaction enhances this online exchange. First, I find that farmers in both the WhatsApp-Only and WhatsApp+In-Person treatments invest more in their farms in the form of pesticides, fertilizers and seeds, by an average of Rs. 10,000 (approximately $120). Second, the increase in farm investment is preceded by increases in online information exchange: treated farmers are about 55% more likely to use WhatsApp to inform their agricultural decisions. Third, text analysis reveals that farmers that do not meet in person exchange more social greetings online and show more positive sentiment, and farmers that meet in-person exchange more market-relevant information on treatment WhatsApp groups. Fourth, I do not find significant increases in farm revenues for treated farmers in the short-run. For farm investment and revenue results, the added in-person interactions do not significantly add to the effects of online information exchange. I find that information sharing on social media has causal effects on farm investments, and is accompanied with greater likelihood of using WhatsApp in the agricultural decision-making process.
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