Technology Adoption and Institution: Evidence from Field Experiments in Cameroon

Although several welfare improving technologies are available, the adoption of these technologies remains puzzlingly low. This appears to be especially true for prospective adopters residing in Low Income Countries (LICs), for whom the adoption of these technologies would be most beneficial. This thesis focuses the factors that have been considered to prevent the adoption of welfare improving technologies in LICs, test the short and longer term impact of strategies aiming at increasing uptake for two different technologies, and studies two specific social processes that may underlay the adoption decision – though not testing their direct impact on the adoption decision for a specific technology. In Chapter 1, the General Introduction, I introduce the topic and main research question, and provide an overview of the methodologies used throughout this thesis. Chapter 2 uses a field experiment to study the impact of subsidies on the uptake of a capital intensive technology for the production of gas for cooking and lighting from renewable sources, which requires a substantial behavioral shift from prospective adopters. Chapter 3 uses a field experiment to study the impact of subsidies on the longer term adoption process of an affordable solar technology for the production of light and which does not require much effort from the prospective adopter. In particular, the chapter studies the impact of subsidies on the uptake, usage, re-adoption, decision of individuals and the diffusion of a pico-solar lamp Chapter 4 uses a lab-in-the field experiment with village leaders and village residents to build an indicator for quality of leadership and uses it to test how the quality of leadership affects the behaviour of village residents. It is important to mention that the study does not explore the causal relationship between quality of leaderships and villager behaviour, and uses a very narrow definition of “quality of leadership”. Using an artefactual field experiment, Chapter 5 studies the differences in individual risk preferences between spouses within a household, and develops a metric to measure individual bargaining power over a joint decision, and how the relative influence exercised by each spouse influences households’ investment decisions in specific domains. Similarly to chapter 4, this chapter does not explore any causal relationship. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a discussion of the main findings of this thesis, provides policy implications, presents the main limitations of the research approach and offers recommendations for future research.