Behavioral responses and the impact of new agricultural technologies: evidence from a double-blind field experiment in Tanzania

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dc.creatorBulte, Erwin
dc.creatorBeekman, Gonne
dc.creatorDifalco, Salvatore
dc.creatorHella, Joseph
dc.creatorLei, Pan
dc.date2021-07-26T07:34:50Z
dc.date2021-07-26T07:34:50Z
dc.date2014
dc.date.accessioned2022-10-25T08:51:13Z
dc.date.available2022-10-25T08:51:13Z
dc.descriptionJournal Article
dc.descriptionRandomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the social sciences are typically not double-blind, so participants know they are “treated” and will adjust their behavior accordingly. Such effort responses complicate the assessment of impact. To gauge the potential magnitude of effort responses we implement a conventional RCT and double-blind trial in rural Tanzania, and ran- domly allocate modern and traditional cowpea seed varieties to a sample of farmers. Effort responses can be quantitatively important—for our case they explain the entire “treatment effect on the treated” as measured in a conventional economic RCT. Specifically, harvests are the same for people who know they received the modern seeds and for people who did not know what type of seeds they got; however, people who knew they had received the traditional seeds did much worse. Importantly, we also find that most of the behavioral response is unobserved by the analyst, or at least not readily captured using coarse, standard controls.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/3769
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/91152
dc.languageen
dc.publisherOxford University Press
dc.subjectImproved varieties
dc.subjectRandomized controlled trial (RCT)
dc.subjectPlacebo
dc.titleBehavioral responses and the impact of new agricultural technologies: evidence from a double-blind field experiment in Tanzania
dc.typeArticle

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