Register for individual webinars below.
 

Behavioral Economics and Beyond: 
Insights to Improve Programming for 
Rural Development
 

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk and Resilience (MRR) hosted a Behavioral Economics Forum in February 2024 that delivered rigorous research examples of integrating behavioral economics in development programming. The focus of the two days was to share key evidence from advances in behavioral economics and illustrate how this evidence might be practically incorporated into interventions and policy for more effective development impacts. Takeaways are highlighted here.

Building out from the Forum, the MRR Innovation Lab is offering a series of three webinars to continue the conversation. We will be sharing a deeper understanding of what may drive behaviors in low-income rural areas; this includes considerations of behavioral economics, but also brings in several other important related factors, such as social networks and learning environments. The series will also foster connections between research and policy, and allow for discussion of how these findings may be applied in development programming.

Webinar Schedule

1. Psychological Poverty Traps – What are they and how do we escape? 
October 2, 2024
10am EDT | 3pm WAT | 5pm EAT

Psychological well-being can play a determining role in people's economic lives. Psychological and economic assets need to be assessed together to fully understand how to build the resilience of people facing climate shocks or conflict. This session will highlight MRR-affiliated work that lays out what a psychological poverty trap looks like and how economic development interventions that robustly include behavioral insights can boost impacts.

Watch the recording 

(Slides available at the bottom of this page.)

Mo Alloush
Hamilton College 

Michael Carter
University of California, Davis 

Andrés Moya
Universidad de Los Andes

MRR-affiliated research: 

• Moya, A., Carter, M. 2019. “Violence and the formation of hopelessness: Evidence from internally displaced persons in Colombia.” World Development.
• Zheng, G., Carter, M., Jensen, N., Krovetz, L. 2023. “Psychosocial Constraints, Impact Heterogeneity and Spillovers in a Multifaceted Graduation Program in  Kenya.” NBER Working Paper 31611. 
• Alloush, M. 2024. "Income, Psychological Well-Being, and the Dynamics of Poverty." Economic Development and Cultural Change.

2. Enabling Tech Adoption Through Learning
November 7, 2024
10am EST | 4pm WAT | 6pm EAT

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Smallholder farmers face information gaps that can hinder the uptake of new, productive technologies. Programs that intentionally spark learning, and recognize possible behavioral constraints to learning, will increase adoption of new agricultural technologies to close yield gaps and reduce poverty. This session highlights MRR-affiliated work that lays out evidence from creative “learning-focused” research projects that have generated benefits including higher crop yields and income.

Michael Carter
University of California, Davis 

Andrew Hobbs
University of
San Francisco

Jonathan Malacarne
University of Maine

Emilia Tjernström
Monash University

MRR-affiliated research: 

• Boucher, S.R., Carter, M.R., Flatnes, J.E., Lybbert, T.J., Malacarne, J.G., Mareyna, P.P., Paul, L.A. 2024. "Bundling Genetic and Financial Technologies for More Resilient and Productive Small-Scale Farmers in Africa." The Economic Journal. 
• Tjernström, E., Lybbert, T.J., Hernández, R.F., Correa, J.S. 2021. "Learning by (virtually) doing: Experimentation and belief updating in smallholder agriculture." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.  
• MRR Innovation Lab. 2019. A Digital Game to Improve How Index Insurance Improves Resilience to Drought.   
• Carter, M., Laajaj, R., Yang, D. 2021. "Subsidies and the African Green Revolution: Direct Effects and Social Network Spillovers of Randomized Input Subsidies in Mozambique." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.
• Malacarne, J. 2024. "The farmer and the fates: Locus of control and investment in rainfed agriculture." Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 

3. Inequality and Aspirations
January 23, 2025
10am EST | 4pm WAT | 6pm EAT

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The behavioral implications of social strata and ideas of fairness/equity are important to consider in economic development programming. Social networks, aspirations based off of an understanding of one's "place,” and one's sense of what is fair, can all impact how farmers make decisions about investing in their future. This session will focus on MRR-affiliated work that lays out evidence on the subtle behavioral effects of social strata, and how this knowledge can be incorporated into programming for better outcomes. 

MRR-affiliated research: 

• Janzen, S., Magnan, N., Sharma, S., Thompson, W.M. 2017. "Aspirations failure and formation in rural Nepal." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 
• Gallenstein, R.A. 2024. "Does inequality impede risk management? Evidence from a lab experiment in Ghana." Journal of Risk and Insurance.
• Dillon, A., Porter, M., Ouedraogo, A. 2018. "Social Network Targeting of Agricultural Technology: Adoption, Input Substitution and Yield Effects." Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting.