Data for ‘social networks, identity and economic behavior: empirical evidence from India’, (2010, Cornell University).

Introduction

These data were collected in the framework of Dr. Annemie Maertens’ PhD dissertation during the period August 2007 – July 2009. The dissertation was undertaken from Cornell University, but executed in India in collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The project was sponsored through an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (Grant No. 0649330).

The main goal of this project was to collect and analyse household survey data in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in order to gain a better understanding of the role of social networks and identity in economic decision-making. The first panel of this research studied the role of social learning and social pressures in Bacillus thurigiensis (Bt) cotton adoption using data from three villages (Aurepalle, Kanzara and Kinkhed). The second panel of this research studied the role of social norms in educational decisions and aspiration using data from three villages (Dokur, Kalman and Shirapur).

The data collection consisted of five phases: (1) qualitative round (to determine the topic of the two panels); (2) trial round (to field test the questionnaires); (3) training round (to train the enumerators); (4) quantitative collection round (to collect the household level, village level data); (4’) data entry of (4) ; (5) data validation round (to collect additional data to correct the missing variables and inconsistencies uncovered in (4’)).

The villages selected for this study are part of the Village Level Studies (VLS) program ICRISAT. In this program, ICRISAT followed 300 randomly selected households from six villages during the period 1975-1985 every three weeks. In 2001, ICRISAT restarted the panel, revisiting 185 of the first generation VLS households and their split-offs, in addition to 261 newly added households. This data collection is currently ongoing:

To obtain the 1975-1985 and 2001-2006 data:

http://www.icrisat.org/gt-mpi/knowledgeBase/Databases/vls.asp

To obtain the 2001-2006 data, see also:

http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/members/stefan.dercon/icrisat/ICRISAT/index.html

Zip files contain pdf / doc / dta files

Stata (https://www.stata.com/) is required to view the .dta files - please refer to the read me.pdf before using the data collected.

Published papers resulting from these data

Maertens, Annemie (2017) Who cares what others think (or do)? Social learning and social pressures in cotton farming in India. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 99(4): 988-1007.

Maertens, A., AV Chari and D.R. Just (2014). Why farmers sometimes love risks: evidence from India. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 62(2): 239-274.

Maertens, Annemie and CB Barrett (2017). Measuring social networks' effects on agricultural technology adoption. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 95(2): 353-359.

Chari, A V and Maertens, Annemie (2014) Gender, productive ability and the perceived returns to education: evidence from rural India. Economics Letters, 122(2): 253-257.

Maertens, Annemie (2013) Social norms and aspirations: age of marriage and education in rural India. World Development, 47: 1-15.

Maertens, Annemie (2011) Does education pay off? Subjective expectations with regard to education in rural India. Economic and Political Weekly, 46 (9): 58-63.

Maertens, Annemie and AV Chari (2020). What's your child worth? An analysis of expected dowry payments in rural India. World Development, 130.