Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/306164 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Citation: 
[Journal:] Agricultural Economics [ISSN:] 1574-0862 [Volume:] 55 [Issue:] 5 [Publisher:] Wiley [Place:] Hoboken, NJ [Year:] 2024 [Pages:] 739-757
Publisher: 
Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Abstract: 
Farmers' adoption of novel technologies is influenced by other farmers' behavior, a phenomenon known as peer effects. Although such effects have been studied intensively, the literature does not clearly distinguish between those that result (1) from verbal exchanges with other farmers and (2) from field observations, including the application of technology, its outcomes, and field conditions. We extend existing theoretical concepts and hypothesize that verbal information exchanges and field observations are two types of peer effects. Using data from an online survey of German sugar beet farmers' application of mechanical weeding from early 2022, we find that the likelihood of adopting mechanical weeding increases across all model specifications by around 26%–28% if at least one adopter is known and by approximately 30%–32% if at least one field is observed. The two types of peer effects complement and reinforce each other in explaining adoption decisions. The effects increase with the number of adopters known and fields observed but decrease with larger distances to the observed fields. The findings can support designing extension services and future peer effects research that should consider the distinction between peer effects arising from verbal exchanges and field observations.
Subjects: 
peer effects
social network
spatial information diffusion
technology adoption
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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