Educational Programs in Rural Nepal : Peer Communication and Information Spillovers

This paper studies how individuals exchange information with peers and how this information circulates and spreads through informal channels, focusing on the role of the community as a bridge for information flows. I concentrate on three rural villages in Nepal where an educational radio program about family planning and modern contraception methods is broadcasted. Women can access the information in different ways: they can personally listen to the radio program, they can speak with friends who listen to the radio program, or they can receive indirect information reported from third sources such as friends of their friends. I explicitly take into account the structure of the community network to show that also the information reported from third sources is a determinant of the women's adoption of modern contraception methods. I then address the issue of link formation and rule out the potential endogeneity of network, reconfirming that indirect exposure matters and personal links are an effective bridge for information flows