Publication: The Demand for Advice: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa
Loading...
Date
2021-02-17
ISSN
0258-6770 (print)
1564-698X (online)
1564-698X (online)
Published
2021-02-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Low levels of investment into modern technologies, and limited use of measures that have low monetary cost but the potential for high yields, are often regarded as obstacles to further agricultural development. This paper investigates farmers’ demand for one such measure, namely agricultural advisory services. These have modest (most frequently zero) monetary user cost but, according to some recent research, have the potential to result in large increases of yields. Yet demand for these extension services is often low. We propose that costly attention may be part of the explanation for this. In our model, advisory services are available free of charge, but positive effects on production are only realized if farmers devote attention to listening to and implementing the provided advice. Modeling farmers as rational decision makers facing scarce attention, we identify the circumstances under which farmers may optimally abstain from demanding advisory services. The model complements the insights of other theories commonly used to explain suboptimal farm decisions and outcomes, and generates testable predictions, which are consistent with empirical evidence based on a large farm-level panel dataset from Sub-Saharan Africa.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Naeher, Dominik; Schündeln, Matthias. 2021. The Demand for Advice: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank Economic Review. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40763 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO .”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
World Bank Economic Review
1564-698X
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Error: Could not load results for 'https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/item/relateditemlistconfigs/839a92c7-702e-4e93-893c-6f38c5307d68_metadata/itemlist'.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Error: Could not load results for 'https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/item/relateditemlistconfigs/839a92c7-702e-4e93-893c-6f38c5307d68_downloads/itemlist'.