Cheap Talk and Coordination in the Lab and in the Field: Collective Commercialization in Senegal / Fo Kodjo Dzinyefa Aflagah, Tanguy Bernard, Angelino Viceisza.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aflagah, Fo Kodjo Dzinyefa.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bernard, Tanguy.

Viceisza, Angelino.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w26045.

NBER working paper series no. w26045

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Cheap Talk and Coordination in the Lab and in the Field

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

Coordination is central to social interactions. Theory and conventional lab experiments suggest that cheap talk/communication can enhance coordination under certain conditions. Two aspects that remain underexplored are (1) the interaction between the number of players (group size) and communication and (2) how existing findings might play out in the field. We address both of these by studying a typical naturally-occurring setting that requires coordination; that is, one where members of agricultural cooperatives seek to jointly sell their output. Combining artefactual/lab-in-the-field experiments (LFEs), natural field experiments (RCTs), surveys, and cooperative records, we find that (1) revealing farmers' intended sales (i.e., cheap talk/communication) yields enhanced collective commercialization (i.e., coordination), particularly in larger groups; (2) such cheap talk may lead to higher incomes for small-scale farmers; (3) participants transfer learning from the LFEs thus affecting subsequent behavior in the RCTs (i.e., the day-to-day environment). Our results contribute to existing literature by highlighting the potential for cheap-talk institutions to (1) boost coordination, particularly in settings with greater strategic uncertainty (e.g., larger farmer cooperatives), and (2) promote collective entrepreneurship and development.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2019.