Social Networks in Developing Countries

Chuang, Yating; Schechter, Laura

doi:10.1146/annurev-resource-100814-125123

“…(). Finally, we do not survey findings on the size, magnitude or heterogeneity of the social effects found in applied economics: other reviews more than amply cover these, for example, Epple and Romano () and Sacerdote () provide surveys of peer effects in education, while Chuang and Schechter () provide a survey of applied work on networks in developing countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Credibly Identifying Social Effects: Accounting for Network Formation and Measurement Error

Advani

¹

,

Malde

²

2018

Journal of Economic Surveys

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Understanding whether and how connections between agents (networks) such as declared friendships in classrooms, transactions between firms, and extended family connections, influence their socio-economic outcomes has been a growing area of research within economics. Early methods developed to identify these social effects assumed that networks had formed exogenously, and were perfectly observed, both of which are unlikely to hold in practice. A more recent literature, both within economics and in other disciplines, develops methods that relax these assumptions. This paper reviews that literature. It starts by providing a general econometric framework for linear models of social effects, and illustrates how network endogeneity and missing data on the network complicate identification of social effects. Thereafter, it discusses methods for overcoming the problems caused by endogenous formation of networks. Finally, it outlines the stark consequences of missing data on measures of the network, and regression parameters, before describing potential solutions.CREDIBLY IDENTIFYING SOCIAL EFFECTS 1017 unobserved dimensions could influence within-group interactions, and through this the actual outcome. Ignoring variation in interactions within such groups can lead to misleading conclusions and policy design, as shown in recent work by Carrell et al. (2013).More recently, a growing body of research within empirical economics uses data which directly measure interactions between pairs of agents (network data hereon) to sidestep these issues. This growth has been spurred by the increasing availability of such data, as well as the development of methods to identify and estimate social effects with such data. Starting with Bramoullé et al. (2009) andDe Giorgi et al. (2010), methods have been developed to overcome the reflection problem. They show how information on network structure can be used to break the simultaneity, and obtain the necessary exclusion restrictions for parameter identification. These methods, reviewed in detail by Advani and Malde (2014), Topa and Zenou (2015) and Boucher and Fortin (2015), impose strong restrictions on the network formation process and the quality of the data.In particular, the network is assumed to be exogenous conditional on observed agent-and network-level characteristics, and to be fully and perfectly observed by the researcher. Both assumptions are unlikely to hold in practice. In a schooling context, for example, personality traits which are rarely observed by a researcher might influence both a child's choice of friends and her schooling performance. Estimates of the influence of a child's friends' outcomes on her outcomes will be biased if her choice of friends is not accounted for. Similarly, accurately collecting fine-grained information on all connections is very costly and logistically challenging, making it rare to observe a complete, perfectly measured network. This has important implications for identification of social effects using restrictions based on the network struct...

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“…Beyond the activity participants, the limited circulation of content-related themes suggested that the main messages resonated with more privileged lifestyles irrespective of our efforts to translate and convey them in a way that is meaningful for the broader rural population (similar to core-periphery tensions raised by Broom, et al [34]). A further complication for the diffusion of the messages was that people might not deem information about drug resistance a personal priority [4,35], 11 and the benefit of slowing the development of drug resistant bacteria lacks a clear demonstration effect [24]. If these arguments hold, then new ideas about antibiotic use would remain passive unless they threaten people personally (or: we would need to combine the content with "a spark").…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The one-off activity in Salavan was designed to cover half a day of interactive sessions for 25 to 40 people. 3 We selected well-known individuals from the across each village, expecting that they would inform other villagers about the content of the activity (corresponding to approaches of targeting opinion leaders [24,25]).…”

Section: Intervention (Public Engagement Activity)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Outputs, Outcomes, and Behavioural Impacts of an Antibiotic-Related Educational Activity in Lao PDR

Haenssgen¹,

Xayavong²,

Charoenboon³

et al. 2018

Preprint

3

0

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Education and awareness raising are the primary tools of global health policy to change public behaviour. Considering the limitations of awareness agenda and the lack of social research to inform alternative approaches, our objective was to generate new empirical evidence on the consequences of antibiotic-related awareness raising in a low-income country context. We implemented an educational activity in two Lao villages to share general antibiotic-related messages, but also to learn about people’s conceptions and health behaviours. Two rounds of census survey data enabled us to assess the activity’s outputs, its knowledge outcomes, and its immediate behavioural impacts in a difference-in-difference design. Our panel data covered 1,130 adults over two rounds, including 58 activity participants and 208 villagers exposed indirectly via conversations in the village. We found that activity-related communication circulated among more privileged groups, which limited its indirect effects. Among participants, the activity influenced the awareness and understanding of “drug resistance,” while effects on attitudes were minor. Evidence on behavioural impacts was sparse and mixed, but the range of possible consequences included a disproportionate uptake of antibiotics from formal healthcare providers. Our study casts doubt on the continued dominance of awareness raising as a behavioural tool to address antibiotic resistance.

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“…The one-off activity in Salavan was designed to cover half a day of interactive sessions for 25 to 40 people. 4 We selected well-known individuals from the across each village, expecting that they would inform other villagers about the content of the activity (corresponding to approaches of targeting opinion leaders [24,25]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outputs, Outcomes, and Behavioural Impacts of an Antibiotic-Related Educational Activity in Lao PDR

Haenssgen¹,

Xayavong²,

Charoenboon³

et al. 2018

Preprint

3

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Education and awareness raising are the primary tools of global health policy to change public behaviour. Considering the limitations of awareness agenda and the lack of social research to inform alternative approaches, our objective was to generate new empirical evidence on the consequences of antibiotic-related awareness raising in a low-income country context. We implemented an educational activity in two Lao villages to share general antibiotic-related messages, but also to learn about people’s conceptions and health behaviours. Two rounds of census survey data enabled us to assess the activity’s outputs, its knowledge outcomes, and its immediate behavioural impacts in a difference-in-difference design. Our panel data covered 1,130 adults over two rounds, including 58 activity participants and 208 villagers exposed indirectly via conversations in the village. We found that activity-related communication circulated among more privileged groups, which limited its indirect effects. Among participants, the activity influenced the awareness and understanding of “drug resistance,” while effects on attitudes were minor. Evidence on behavioural impacts was sparse and mixed, but the range of possible consequences included a disproportionate uptake of antibiotics from formal healthcare providers. Our study casts doubt on the continued dominance of awareness raising as a behavioural tool to address antibiotic resistance.

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Social Networks in Developing Countries

Cited by 65 publications

References 116 publications

Credibly Identifying Social Effects: Accounting for Network Formation and Measurement Error

Credibly Identifying Social Effects: Accounting for Network Formation and Measurement Error

Outputs, Outcomes, and Behavioural Impacts of an Antibiotic-Related Educational Activity in Lao PDR

Outputs, Outcomes, and Behavioural Impacts of an Antibiotic-Related Educational Activity in Lao PDR

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